[DOCS] Version information in docs

2005-03-27 Thread Jim C. Nasby
ISTM it would be very useful if the docs specified what version a
feature that would break in older versions was implemented in. The
example that comes to mind is argument names in CREATE FUNCTION, which
was added in 8.0. The 8.0 docs (http://lnk.nu/postgresql.org/1y3.html)
mention the ability to name arguments, but it doesn't mention that the
feature was added in 8.0 and can not be used in prior versions. Anyone
who's trying to write code that will run on multiple versions of
PostgreSQL would want to know this.
-- 
Jim C. Nasby, Database Consultant   [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Give your computer some brain candy! www.distributed.net Team #1828

Windows: "Where do you want to go today?"
Linux: "Where do you want to go tomorrow?"
FreeBSD: "Are you guys coming, or what?"

---(end of broadcast)---
TIP 7: don't forget to increase your free space map settings


Re: [PATCHES] [DOCS] Approximate count(*)

2005-03-27 Thread Jim C. Nasby
Josh, David-

Do you think it's worth adding a function that would do the select for
you? IE: tuplecount('schema', 'tablename')?

On Thu, Mar 24, 2005 at 07:19:00PM -0800, Josh Berkus wrote:
> David,
> 
> If Jim and I finish our work for 8.1, then you'll be able to do:
> 
> SELECT approx_records FROM pg_sysviews.pg_tables WHERE schema_name = 'schema' 
> AND table_name = 'table'
> 
> But the same caveats will apply.
> 
> -- 
> Josh Berkus
> Aglio Database Solutions
> San Francisco
> 
> ---(end of broadcast)---
> TIP 4: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster
> 

-- 
Jim C. Nasby, Database Consultant   [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Give your computer some brain candy! www.distributed.net Team #1828

Windows: "Where do you want to go today?"
Linux: "Where do you want to go tomorrow?"
FreeBSD: "Are you guys coming, or what?"

---(end of broadcast)---
TIP 6: Have you searched our list archives?

   http://archives.postgresql.org


Re: [DOCS] Missing doc on expression format for ALTER TABLE

2005-03-27 Thread Josh Berkus
Tom,

>   ALTER [ COLUMN ] column TYPE type [ USING expression ]
>
> Surely you're not expecting it to repeat the complete syntax for
> .

Well, yes, actually.  Where in the documentation is a type conversion 
expression defined?   Do we use NEW and OLD?  Or the name of the column?  Or 
something else?

-- 
--Josh

Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco

---(end of broadcast)---
TIP 7: don't forget to increase your free space map settings


Re: [DOCS] Version information in docs

2005-03-27 Thread Tom Lane
"Jim C. Nasby" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> ISTM it would be very useful if the docs specified what version a
> feature that would break in older versions was implemented in. The
> example that comes to mind is argument names in CREATE FUNCTION, which
> was added in 8.0. The 8.0 docs (http://lnk.nu/postgresql.org/1y3.html)
> mention the ability to name arguments, but it doesn't mention that the
> feature was added in 8.0 and can not be used in prior versions. Anyone
> who's trying to write code that will run on multiple versions of
> PostgreSQL would want to know this.

The release notes cover that; or you can compare the docs for the oldest
and newest versions you want to work with.  I think it would be more
confusing than helpful for the reference pages to try to cover all the
changes from version to version.

regards, tom lane

---(end of broadcast)---
TIP 4: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster


Re: [DOCS] Missing doc on expression format for ALTER TABLE

2005-03-27 Thread Alvaro Herrera
On Sun, Mar 27, 2005 at 05:11:43PM -0800, Josh Berkus wrote:

> > ALTER [ COLUMN ] column TYPE type [ USING expression ]
> >
> > Surely you're not expecting it to repeat the complete syntax for
> > .
> 
> Well, yes, actually.  Where in the documentation is a type conversion 
> expression defined?   Do we use NEW and OLD?  Or the name of the column?  Or 
> something else?

I think the ALTER TABLE page is in dire need of a "See also" section, at
least.  And a reference to where  is defined would be nice
to have.

-- 
Alvaro Herrera (<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>)
"All rings of power are equal,
But some rings of power are more equal than others."
 (George Orwell's The Lord of the Rings)

---(end of broadcast)---
TIP 2: you can get off all lists at once with the unregister command
(send "unregister YourEmailAddressHere" to [EMAIL PROTECTED])


Re: [DOCS] Version information in docs

2005-03-27 Thread Jim C. Nasby
On Sun, Mar 27, 2005 at 08:54:22PM -0500, Tom Lane wrote:
> "Jim C. Nasby" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> > ISTM it would be very useful if the docs specified what version a
> > feature that would break in older versions was implemented in. The
> > example that comes to mind is argument names in CREATE FUNCTION, which
> > was added in 8.0. The 8.0 docs (http://lnk.nu/postgresql.org/1y3.html)
> > mention the ability to name arguments, but it doesn't mention that the
> > feature was added in 8.0 and can not be used in prior versions. Anyone
> > who's trying to write code that will run on multiple versions of
> > PostgreSQL would want to know this.
> 
> The release notes cover that; or you can compare the docs for the oldest
> and newest versions you want to work with.  I think it would be more
> confusing than helpful for the reference pages to try to cover all the
> changes from version to version.

Well, it might not need to cover all changes, just ones that might be
easy to overlook. Besides, are there really that many syntax changes
from one version to another?

Another idea I had is that if there was actual metadata in the document
source about the version info, it would be possible to output different
amounts or kinds of information depending on how old the change was. For
example, I doubt anyone would possibly care about changes prior to 7.0
at this point, and most people probably wouldn't care about changes
prior to 7.3 or even 7.4, so the default documentation wouldn't need to
show that info. Another alternative is providing a history link on
features that takes you to appropriate documentation about what changes
have occured and when. In this case, it would just mention that argument
names first appeared in 8.0.
-- 
Jim C. Nasby, Database Consultant   [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Give your computer some brain candy! www.distributed.net Team #1828

Windows: "Where do you want to go today?"
Linux: "Where do you want to go tomorrow?"
FreeBSD: "Are you guys coming, or what?"

---(end of broadcast)---
TIP 7: don't forget to increase your free space map settings


Re: [DOCS] Missing doc on expression format for ALTER TABLE

2005-03-27 Thread Josh Berkus
Guys,

> > Well, yes, actually.  Where in the documentation is a type conversion
> > expression defined?   Do we use NEW and OLD?  Or the name of the column? 
> > Or something else?
>
> I think the ALTER TABLE page is in dire need of a "See also" section, at
> least.  And a reference to where  is defined would be nice
> to have.

What I'm pointing out here is that the USING clause can't be just ANY 
expression, it needs to be a specific type of expression.   And the docs 
don't explain what kind of expression is usable here.   Even a single example 
would go a long way ...

-- 
Josh Berkus
Aglio Database Solutions
San Francisco

---(end of broadcast)---
TIP 7: don't forget to increase your free space map settings