> I suppose if all you want is backward compatibility which makes sense
> for pg_dump, but surely psql should be forward thinking.>
> Normally it's old clients with new server, not the other way around --
> at least with big companies it seems easier to get a server upgraded
> than everyones desktop.
>
> Forward looking means pulling the available commands, queries, etc from
> the backend. It actually works quite well (submitted a patch quite a
> while ago) in all respects except string translation.
Hmmm...string translation really is the bugger, isn't it. I had only
planned to do backwards compatibility really...
It had occurred to me that we could move support for each version of the
backend into a shared lib.
eg. libpsql70.so, libpsql71.so, etc.
Then all we do is load the appropriate lib and call functions in it. To
support a newer version of postgres, you just need to drop in the latest
.so or something.
Chris