Re: pg_description usage pointers?

On Mon, 19 Mar 2001, will trillich wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 19, 2001 at 09:50:20PM -0500, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > Psql backslash commands use it to describe tables, types, functions,
> > etc.
>
> i realize that, coach. i'm wondering if any devious minds
> out there are using it for something clever and useful,
> instead of doing the roll-your-own table cross-lookups that
> i've been hobbling together for the past few weeks...

Nothing devious but back in my Oracle days we included comments on all
tables and attributes.  What better place to store the information about
the database than in the database (metadata?).  I wrote so scripts (pretty
ORacle and Data General AOS/VS specific) that generated documentation for
an application using the comments.
   Too often someone would walk in and want to know which attribute to use
to tie one table to another.  (I had some pretty good report writers that
weren't computer people.)  After getting this generate HTML and onto our
Intranet they could just run the report and see all the tables, columns,
primary keys, foreign keys, and information about each of them.  Made my
life simpler - when I could get them to use it - and I'd use it instead of
keeping printed stuff lying around.


Rod
--