Re: [HACKERS] backslash in psql output

> You can't tell the difference between a NULL field and an all-blanks
> value in this format; nor can you really be sure how many trailing
> blanks there are in tuples 3 and 5.  So the goal is readability,
> not lack of ambiguity.  Given that goal, I don't see the value of
> printing backslash escapes.  Are you really having difficulty telling
> the data vertical bar from the ones used as column separators?
> Physical alignment is the cue the eye relies on, I think.
>
> The only cases that PQprint inserted backslashes for were the column
> separator char (unnecessary per above example), newlines (also not
> exactly hard to recognize), and backslash itself.  All of these
> seem unnecessary and confusing to me.

OK, I understand your point here, that we must maximize readability, and
that robustness is not as important.

OK, let's keep the removal of backslashes.  Can you recommend a nice
NULL display, perhaps '[NULL]' or '<NULL>'?

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