Re: [HACKERS] Re: [BUGS] First experiences with Postgresql 7.0

Hi,

on Fri, 25 Feb 2000 00:39:15 +0100 (CET) Peter Eisentraut wrote 
concerning "Re: [HACKERS] Re: [BUGS] First experiences with Postgresql 7.0 "
something like this:

>> use psql as a shell and I think it would be really cool if you could just
>> write #!/path/to/psql -f to write sql scripts.

> I considered that briefly, but dismissed it equally fast. psql is a shell
> to the PostgreSQL backend, if you will, not to the system. It's optimized
> as a batch processor and for being called from shell scripts, not for
> being a programming language of it's own. (In the future it would be nice
> to have a PL/Pgsql based front-end available for that sort of stuff.)

Well, if you're saying psql is a shell, then maybe we should consider moving
in that direction. Not everything that's called with #! is a shell to the
system. The most notable example is probably perl, but there are other
programs like sed or awk that are being used with #! but certainly nobody
ever considered using awk as a system shell ;)

As for the programming language: You're already going in that direction
by implementing something like pl/sql. Now if that was available from
psql you're already way down the programming language road.

Just some thoughts ...
Rolf