Re: Railroad diagrams, a-la sqlite

Heikki Linnakangas <heikki.linnakangas@enterprisedb.com> writes:
> On 17/07/10 23:36, Thom Brown wrote:
>> On 17 July 2010 21:30, Joseph Conway<mail@joeconway.com>  wrote:
>>> Oracle SELECT:
>>> http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B14117_01/server.101/b10759/statements_10002.htm

>> Yeah, that kinda chaotic.  Looks like a sadistic puzzle from the
>> Krypton Factor. :S

> Mind you, that syntax is genuinely complex. It would look chaotic using
> the text representation we currently use as well.

Well, our own SELECT syntax isn't exactly short:
http://developer.postgresql.org/pgdocs/postgres/sql-select.html

The problem I personally see with railroad diagrams is that there's
so much whitespace in 'em.  Our current SELECT syntax diagram fits on
a page, more or less, but it would span multiple pages in railroad form.
That doesn't make for a leap forward in comprehensibility IMO.

            regards, tom lane