Re: [HACKERS] Well, then you keep your darn columns

> Double-yikes.  There goes that idea, or does it?  Attributes are
> numbered.  How does a missing attribute get handled for new rows?
> My guess is that we have to keep this thing around forever.  Can you
> imagine having all those user apps tha query pg_attribute supress that
> column.  Sound like too much work to me.

I don't know the intimate details of the postgres implementation, but I
would have thought every row would need a version number and you would
need to somehow store how the table looked at each version.

Because you could
CREATE TABLE
INSERT
ALTER DROP
INSERT/DELETE
ALTER DROP/ADD
INSERT/DELETE

and you would end up with rows with 5 or 6 different formats.