Re: [HACKERS] Happy column dropping

Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:
> I wonder if we should throw out a NOTICE when we drop some
> characteristic of a table?

The problem is mostly that the code doesn't even *know* that it's
dropping data.  If we add code to find the info that's getting lost,
it's probably little more work to add code to copy it.

I'm of two minds about this.  Peter is an energetic new contributor
and we'd be really foolish to discourage him (I was there not very
long ago myself).  And a limited DROP COLUMN capability is better
than none at all, so long as its limitations are well-documented.

OTOH, I understand Don Baccus' concern: Postgres is on the cusp of
being considered professional-grade software --- we are competing
against multi-K-dollar commercial offerings --- and we jeopardize
that perception if we add features that are less than fully baked.
This is definitely in the 50%-baked category...
        regards, tom lane