Re: final patch - plpgsql: for-in-array

Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> writes:
> Right, that was my impression, too.  But, I think this may be partly a
> case of people talking past each other.  My impression of this
> conversation was a repetition of this sequence:

> A: This syntax is bad.
> B: But it's way faster!

> ...which makes no sense.  However, what I now think is going on here
> is that there are really two separate things that are wished for here
> - a more compact syntax, and a performance improvement.  And taken
> separately, I agree with both of those desires.  PL/pgsql is an
> incredibly clunky language syntactically, and it's also slow.  A patch
> that improves either one of those things has value, whether or not it
> also does the other one.

I understand the desire for nicer syntax, in the abstract.  I'm just
unimpressed by this particular change, mainly because I'm afraid that
it will make syntax-error behaviors worse and foreclose future options
for other changes to FOR.  If it were necessary to change the syntax
to get the performance benefit, I might think that on balance we should
do so; but it isn't.
        regards, tom lane