Re: BUG #16939: Plural interval for negative singular

On Mon, Apr 26, 2021 at 12:45:34PM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> writes:
> > On Sun, Apr 25, 2021 at 04:57:26AM -0700, Noah Misch wrote:
> >> Let's not change from one popular spelling to another when doing so creates a
> >> compatibility hazard.  That is to say, I think PostgreSQL would be better with
> >> this patch reverted.
> >> 
> >> If we did want to standardize on singular for -1, EVALUATE_MESSAGE_PLURAL()
> >> would be a key bit of code to change.
> 
> > Oh, good point.  I think we should just pick one and be consistent --- I
> > don't care which we choose.
> 
> I agree with Noah's opinion that we should stick to the historical
> behavior in the interval I/O functions.  There is not enough solidity
> in the "this is grammatically wrong" argument to justify taking any
> risk of application breakage, and it seems like there is some risk of
> that there.
> 
> For the sorts of human-readable messages that EVALUATE_MESSAGE_PLURAL
> tends to be used for, I don't think there's a reason to worry that
> we might break applications if we change it.  So I don't have a
> strong opinion about what to do there.  Still, by the same token
> that the grammatical argument is weak, I lean towards not spending
> effort on changing it.

Are you saying we should revert the patch and leave the plurals
inconsistent in different places?  We were already expressing -1 as
singular in most of the places I saw.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        https://momjian.us
  EDB                                      https://enterprisedb.com

  If only the physical world exists, free will is an illusion.