On Sun, 2008-01-20 at 14:08 -0500, Tom Lane wrote: > Peter Eisentraut <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > Greg Sabino Mullane wrote: > >> Why not run help when someone enters "help" (or "HELP ME!") on the > >> command line? \? is hardly an easy thing to remember (and some people > >> can't be bothered to actually read the screen...) > > > Then surely the help output won't be of use to them either. > > The actual argument for doing this is nothing more nor less than > "mysql does it like that". 99% of the people who will tell you this > is user-friendly think so because they used mysql before coming to > postgres.
The recourse to typing "help" at a command line when an unfamiliar prompt appears wasn't invented for or by mysql. Most Postgres users I meet are strung out across many apps and system utilities, so doing obvious things like this helps them a great deal. It's more about putting the light switch at hand-height next to the wall, so that anybody stumbling in the dark can find it. Their next thought will probably be "Doh! Of course, silly me", but it will still help them. I'd be happy with output that explains briefly the difference between psql and SQL commands and refers people to \? and \h. That way we don't have to introduce too much change and this can be a forgivable special case. (Don't like the "Help me" thing though). -- Simon Riggs 2ndQuadrant http://www.2ndQuadrant.com ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 1: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate subscribe-nomail command to [EMAIL PROTECTED] so that your message can get through to the mailing list cleanly
