Re: contrib function naming, and upgrade issues

Andrew Gierth <andrew@tao11.riddles.org.uk> writes:
> Note that I'm talking here about the names of the C functions, not
> the SQL names.

> The existing hstore has some very dubious choices of function names
> (for non-static functions) in the C code; functions like each(),
> delete(), fetchval(), defined(), tconvert(), etc. which all look to me
> like prime candidates for name collisions and consequent hilarity.

> The patch I'm working on could include fixes for this; but there's an
> obvious impact on anyone upgrading from an earlier version... is it
> worth it?

I agree that this wasn't an amazingly good choice, but I think there's
no real risk of name collisions because fmgr only searches for such names
within the particular .so.  As you say, renaming *will* break existing
dumps.  I'd be inclined to leave it alone, at least for now.  I hope
that someone will step up and implement a decent module system for us
sometime soon, which might fix the upgrade problem for changes of this
sort.
        regards, tom lane