Re: MySQL-ism help patch for psql

On ons, 2010-01-20 at 09:05 -0500, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> I disagree.   No one has complained that we are being a "smartass" by
> reporting this for "help" in psql:
> 
>         You are using psql, the command-line interface to PostgreSQL.
>         Type:  \copyright for distribution terms
>                \h for help with SQL commands
>                \? for help with psql commands
>                \g or terminate with semicolon to execute query
>                \q to quit
> 
> while to be really helpful we would display \?.  After extensive
> discussion we chose against that because we wanted to steer people to
> the proper commands, rather than have them consider 'help' as a valid
> command.  The same is true for the MySQL commands --- we just want to
> point people to the proper commands.

That's not the same thing.  The user typed "help" and you help him.  If
the user types "show tables", you show him the tables.  If the user
typed "show tables" and you send him a help message, that is not what
the user wanted.