Re: Recently added typedef "string" is a horrid idea

On Sat, Feb 6, 2016 at 5:11 PM, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
> I see that commit b47b4dbf6 added this to varlena.c:
>
> typedef struct varlena string;
>
> This is a remarkably bad idea. It will cause pgindent to do strange
> things anywhere it sees a variable or field named "string", of which
> we have quite a few. Remember that the effects of typedef names are
> *global*, so far as pgindent is concerned; not only varlena.c will
> be affected.
>
> Please rename this typedef with some less-generic name. Probably
> some of the other identifiers added in the same commit should be
> adjusted to match.

Oops. I didn't foresee that outcome. I'm not sure offhand what else
to call it, but I suppose we can come up with something.
"charactertype", maybe?

--
Robert Haas
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company