Re: creating index names automatically?

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On Fri, Dec 25, 2009 at 05:27:44PM -0500, Robert Haas wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 25, 2009 at 4:13 PM, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
> > Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> writes:

[...]

> >> I think what we should learn from this case, as well as the recent
> >> changes to EXPLAIN, COPY, and VACUUM syntax, is that adding options to
> >> commands by creating keywords is not very scalable, and that putting
> >> the modifier immediately after the command name is an especially poor
> >> positioning.
> >
> > Perhaps.  The original VACUUM syntax is a pretty bad piece of design,

[...]

> I wasn't intending to engage in pointless bellyaching.  What I was
> trying to do was point out that there are some common problems in all
> of these cases, and trying to extract a design principle.  I'm not
> really sure why CREATE INDEX [CONCURRENTLY] is any different from
> VACUUM [FULL] [FREEZE] [ANALYZE].  In both cases, the command and its
> modifiers are immediately followed by a name, without any intervening
> keyword or punctuation.  In retrospect, that doesn't seem like a good
> choice, at least to me, so, it might be something to look out for in
> the future.  YMMV, of course.

I have to concur with Robert here. There will be always a need to add
(PostgreSQL-specific, non-standard) modifiers. Having a "syntactical
place" where to put them without forcing us to introduce new
(non-standard) keywords or semi-keywords seems like a Good Thing.

Regards
- -- tomás
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