Re: [HACKERS] Variable substitution in psql backtick expansion

Tom Lane wrote:

> Since we've blown past 80 columns on some of the other
> output, maybe that doesn't matter.  Or maybe we should shorten this
> variable name so it doesn't force reformatting of all this text.

The two-space left margin on the entire block does not add that
much to readability, IMV, so maybe we could reclaim these
two characters.

Another idea: since there are already several variables for which
the text + spacing + presentation don't fit anyway,
we could forget about the tabular presentation and grow
vertically.

That would look like the following, for example, with a 3-space margin
for the description:

AUTOCOMMIT  If set, successful SQL commands are automatically committed
COMP_KEYWORD_CASE  Determines the case used to complete SQL key words  [lower, upper, preserve-lower, preserve-upper]
DBNAME  The currently connected database name
ECHO  Controls what input is written to standard output  [all, errors, none, queries]
ECHO_HIDDEN  If set, display internal queries executed by backslash commands;  if set to "noexec", just show without
execution
ENCODING  Current client character set encoding
FETCH_COUNT  The number of result rows to fetch and display at a time  (default: 0=unlimited)
etc..

To me that looks like a good trade-off: it eases the size constraints
for both the description and the name of the variable, at the cost
of consuming one more line per variable, but that's why the pager
is for.


Best regards,
--
Daniel Vérité
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