Re: MySQL-ism help patch for psql

Jeff Davis wrote:
> On Tue, 2010-01-19 at 12:44 -0600, David Christensen wrote:
>> Hey  -hackers,
>>
>> I whipped up a quick patch for supporting some of the common mysql- 
>> based "meta" commands; this is different than some things which have  
>> been discussed in the past, in that it provides just a quick direction  
>> to the appropriate psql command, not an actual alternative syntax for  
>> the same action.  This is not intended to be comprehensive, but just  
>> to provide proper direction
> 
> I like that idea. There may be a lot of MySQL people that want to use
> the next postgresql release, and this would make it easier.
> 
> Please add the patch to the next commitfest:
> 
> https://commitfest.postgresql.org/action/commitfest_view?id=6
> 
> It's small enough that, if others like it as well, maybe it (or
> something similar) could still make it in this release.

I'm not convinced that we should start adding syntax helpers like that 
to psql. For now it is an arbitrary subset of MySQL stuff, are we going 
to add oracle/db2/mssql/drizzle/mariadb and whatnot later on?
Also I can already see people asking "well you already know that this is 
that command - why not emulate it fully?".
So -1 on the general idea of providing that kind of stuff (though I 
think there is plenty of opportunity to make psql more useful in itself).


Stefan