Re: WIP: default values for function parameters

>>> Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote: 
> In any case, I'm not wedded to using AS for this, and am happy to
> consider other suggestions.  But => isn't acceptable.
How about using a bare equals sign (or the => characters) for
parameter assignment, but require that the parameter name be prefixed
with some special character?  (My first thought was a dollar sign, but
that would cause problems in PL/pgSQL, so some other character would
need to be used.)   It seems like that could give the parser enough
context to consider the operator as parameter assignment, so it
wouldn't require making it a fully reserved word or preclude other
uses of the operator.
I guess it would preclude the use of whatever character was chosen as
a prefix operator in the context of a parameter list, however; which
might be a fatal flaw to the idea.
-Kevin