Re: [HACKERS] Happy column dropping

At 12:27 AM 1/23/00 -0500, Tom Lane wrote:

>I'm of two minds about this.  Peter is an energetic new contributor
>and we'd be really foolish to discourage him (I was there not very
>long ago myself).  And a limited DROP COLUMN capability is better
>than none at all, so long as its limitations are well-documented.
>
>OTOH, I understand Don Baccus' concern: Postgres is on the cusp of
>being considered professional-grade software --- we are competing
>against multi-K-dollar commercial offerings --- and we jeopardize
>that perception if we add features that are less than fully baked.
>This is definitely in the 50%-baked category...

I certainly don't want to discourage Peter, either, and perhaps
was a bit too harsh.  But release of a feature this half-baked
would fit the stereotype many people have held towards free,
open source software, and postgres in particular.

IMHO, of course.



- Don Baccus, Portland OR <dhogaza@pacifier.com>
  Nature photos, on-line guides, Pacific Northwest
  Rare Bird Alert Service and other goodies at
  http://donb.photo.net.