Re: pgbench - refactor init functions with buffers

Hello Tom,

>> I cannot say that I "want" to fix something which already works the same
>> way, because it is against my coding principles. [...]
>> I counted nearly 3500 calls under src/bin.
>
> Yeah, that's the problem.  If someone does come forward with a patch to do
> that, I think it'd be summarily rejected, at least in high-traffic code
> like pg_dump.  The pain it'd cause for back-patching would outweigh the
> value.

What about "typedef StringInfoData PQExpBufferData" and replacing 
PQExpBuffer by StringInfo internally, just keeping the old interface 
around because it is there? That would remove a few hundreds clocs.

ISTM that with inline and varargs macro the substition can be managed 
reasonably lightly, depending on what level of compatibility is required 
for libpq: should it be linkability, or requiring a recompilation is ok?

A clear benefit is that there are quite a few utils for PQExpBuffer in 
"fe_utils/string_utils.c" which would become available for StringInfo, 
which would help using StringInfo without duplicating them.

> That being the case, I'd think a better design principle is "make your
> new code look like the code around it",

Yep.

> which would tend to weigh against introducing StringInfo uses into 
> pgbench when there's none there now and a bunch of PQExpBuffer instead.
> So I can't help thinking the advice you're being given here is suspect.

Well, that is what I was saying, but at 2 against 1, I fold.

-- 
Fabien.