Re: psql: display of object comments

2011/8/9 Shigeru Hanada <shigeru.hanada@gmail.com>:
> I'm the author of that patch, sorry for confusion.  May I explain the
> background of implementing those command? :)
>
> Basically, during implementing foreign table support, I tried to follow
> the existing design.
>
> I found two backslash command groups in psql, \de[wsu] and \d[tvsT],
> which are relevant to foreign table.  Former is a group for listing
> relation (table, view, sequence and type), and they have common output
> format.  Users would use them (sometimes with combination like \dtv) to
> list only specified type of relations.  OTOH latter is a group for
> listing SQL/MED objects (wrapper, server and user mapping), and commands
> in that group have different output columns.  Users would use them to
> see detail of FDW options, maybe mainly FDW options.
>
> They had been implemented in different ways then, and I kept
> implementation similar to existing codes for each.  But now, as you say,
> they seem redundant and inconsistent each other.
>
>> +1 for getting rid of one of them; I don't really care which one gets
>> the axe. Though we should make sure to be able to show all possible
>> columns in whichever command we keep (i.e. add "Options" column to
>> \dE+ if we keep that one).
>
> I'm not sure whether getting rid of one of them is better.
> But maybe \dE is useless than \det, because former doesn't shows more
> information than simple \d.

Looking at this again, I see that they each have certain advantages.
\det shows more information that is specific to foreign tables; but I
don't want to get rid of \dE because it's useful to be able to do
stuff like \dtE to see tables and foreign tables in a single listing.
So maybe we should just leave this well enough alone.

--
Robert Haas
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