Re: real/float example for testlibpq3

On Thu, Jun 16, 2022 at 03:41:50PM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> Robert Haas <robertmhaas(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> > On Tue, Jun 14, 2022 at 1:40 PM Mark Wong <markwkm(at)gmail(dot)com> wrote:
> >> I've created a function for each data type with the idea that an example
> >> for handling a specific data type can be more easily reviewed by looking
> >> in a single place.
> >> I've added examples for REAL, TIMESTAMP WITHOUT TIME ZONE, and BOOLEAN
> >> to try to illustrate how testlibpq3.sql and testlibpq3.c will grow if
> >> this is a good way to go.
>
> > I'm not sure that we want to let these test programs grow very large.
> > In particular, I don't think we should let ourselves get sucked into
> > adding an example for every data type under the sun -- if that's
> > wanted, the solution is perhaps to add documentation for the binary
> > formats, not hide impromptu documentation inside a test program. But
> > doing this much seems OK to me.
>
> Yeah, "hiding impromptu documentation inside a test program" is what
> this looks like, and I'm not sure that's a reasonable way to go.
>
> (1) Who's going to think to look in src/test/examples/testlibpq3.c for
> documentation of binary formats?
>
> (2) The useful details are likely to get buried in notational and
> portability concerns, as I think your build failure illustrates.
>
> (3) I bet few if any packagers install these files, so that the new
> info would be unavailable to many people.
>
> I think some new appendix in the main SGML docs would be the appropriate
> place if we want to provide real documentation.

Just wanted to do another quick check in before I go too far. How do
does this start look? Extending the libpq section with a code snippet
and description per data type?

Regards,
Mark