Re: DROP COLUMN

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hiroshi Inoue [mailto:Inoue@tpf.co.jp]
> Sent: 17 July 2002 05:12
> To: Bruce Momjian
> Cc: Christopher Kings-Lynne; Tom Lane; Rod Taylor;
> PostgreSQL-development
> Subject: Re: [HACKERS] DROP COLUMN
>
>
> > >From my perspective, when client coders like Dave Page and
> others say
> > they would prefer the flag to the negative attno's, I don't have to
> > understand.  I just take their word for it.
>
> do they really love to check attisdropped everywhere ?
> Isn't it the opposite of the encapsulation ?
> I don't understand why we would do nothing for clients.

In pgAdmin's case, this involves one test (maybe 3 lines of code),
because all access to column info is made through one class. The reason
I voted for attisdropped is that the negative attnum's are assumed by
pgAdmin to be 'system columns', not 'any column that doesn't belong to
the user'. Coding around a change like that - whilst not necessarily
harder - would certainly be messier.

Regards, Dave.