On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 5:34 PM, Simon Riggs <si...@2ndquadrant.com> wrote: > On Thu, 2010-07-15 at 13:44 -0500, Robert Haas wrote: >> Sounds good, but we need agreement on a more detailed design first. > What do you mean?
Exactly which commands are we going to support? With exactly what syntax? What information will be returned by each command? In what format? We have no agreement on any of these points. I am of the view that this is not worth doing if it is only a kludge to make things sort-of work for newbies, with the expectation that they'll never do it again once they learn how to use backslash commands (and let's keep in mind that many users access the database through tools other than psql - e.g. pgadmin). I am also of the view that it would be poor to have allow users to type "show tables" to see tables and "show functions" to see functions but require them to type "\des" to see foreign servers. That's not a real fix for any real problem - that's a cheap hack. If we can create a command set which is (1) more mnemonic than the existing backslash commands, (2) generates tabular output that can easily be used by scripts and clients other than psql, (3) applies across-the-board to all of our object types, and (4) is capable of providing all the same functionality that we currently get through "\d<whatever>" commands, then I'm in favor of it. Otherwise, I'm probably not, though I'm willing to listen to what you and others have to say. It's possible that the community might be in favor of a solution which doesn't include all of the above elements, but you can't presume that because the community is generally in favor of doing something along the lines that they will also be in favor of any specific proposal. That's why I think it's important to have, and agree on, a detailed design before writing code. -- Robert Haas EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com The Enterprise Postgres Company -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
