SHOW ---- I think 7.4 could and really should implement SHOW command similar to MySQL. Listing tables/foreign keys/views and so isn't just psql problem, but common to many interface implementations and maintenance tools. I think it's wrong to rely on pg_* system tables on these.
If you think of some probable new user (changing from MySQL) who asks how to query list of tables in PostgreSQL and gets the answer (from psql -E) that is: SELECT n.nspname as "Schema", c.relname as "Name", CASE c.relkind WHEN 'r' THEN 'table' WHEN 'v' THEN 'view' WHEN 'i' THEN 'index' WHEN 'S' THEN 'sequence' WHEN 's' THEN 'special' END as "Type", u.usename as "Owner" FROM pg_catalog.pg_class c LEFT JOIN pg_catalog.pg_user u ON u.usesysid = c.relowner LEFT JOIN pg_catalog.pg_namespace n ON n.oid = c.relnamespace WHERE c.relkind IN ('r','v','S','') AND n.nspname NOT IN ('pg_catalog', 'pg_toast') AND pg_catalog.pg_table_is_visible(c.oid) ORDER BY 1,2; opposed to something like SHOW TABLES_AND_VIEWS as in MySQL, which DBMS would this user prefer? I further suggest that these SHOW command parameters (like tables and views) could be views in special system schema, so it could be easy to update them just by changing templates. Maybe 7.5 (if it had introduced new features) could provide downward compatibility to 7.4 ready clients by allowing the use of SHOW-views from different schema (like pg_show_743_compat) :) Stored procedures used in implementing new syntax ------------------------------------------------- This is an implementation detail suggestion. Would it be possible that new syntax in SQL could be implemented in different languages than C. We ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 2: you can get off all lists at once with the unregister command (send "unregister YourEmailAddressHere" to [EMAIL PROTECTED])