On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 2:35 PM, Tom Lane <t...@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote: > Alvaro Herrera <alvhe...@commandprompt.com> writes: >> Excerpts from Robert Haas's message of mié ene 12 13:48:27 -0300 2011: >>> I guess that begs the question of why we need to allow users to call >>> type output functions directly. > >> It used to be the case that that was the only way to run certain casts. >> For example, see the pre-8.2 version of this: >> http://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Pg_depend_display > >> I haven't needed to use that in a long time, but I am not sure if the >> need has completely disappeared. > > The general point is that any out-of-band data transmitted to an output > function has to be trustworthy, and it has to be available at any place > that is going to call the output function. The latter point tends to > put a crimp in any ideas of this sort anyway: if you can derive the info > you want at any arbitrary place in the system, why not derive it inside > the output function to start with?
Under what circumstances would it be necessary to call a type output function without knowing the data type? I mean, you had to decide which type output function you were going to call in the first place, so... -- Robert Haas EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
