> > And I also see a lot of unhappiness from users of system tables when
> > column numbers all over the system tables would not be logical
column
> > positions any more.
>
> Are you arguing against the feature? Or against the suggested design?
Against the design.
> I should have thought (without much looking) one possible way
> to implement it would be to put Oids on pg_attribute for the
> permanent id, and keep attnum for the (now mutable) logical
> order, adding a further column for the physical order.
Yes, that was the idea (not oid but some number), and I am arguing
against it. Imho people are used to see the logical position in e.g.
pg_index
I know it is a lot of work to update all those dependencies in the
system tables to reorder logical position, but that is the path I think
should be taken. And the first step in that direction is Phil's patch.
Andreas