Re: [HACKERS] Happy column dropping

Vince Vielhaber <vev@michvhf.com>

From: Vince Vielhaber <vev@michvhf.com>
To: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Cc: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>, PostgreSQL Development <pgsql-hackers@postgreSQL.org>, Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us>
Date: 2000-01-23T05:42:45Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers
On 23-Jan-00 Tom Lane wrote:
> Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:
>> I wonder if we should throw out a NOTICE when we drop some
>> characteristic of a table?
> 
> The problem is mostly that the code doesn't even *know* that it's
> dropping data.  If we add code to find the info that's getting lost,
> it's probably little more work to add code to copy it.
> 
> 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...

So why not    ./configure --enable-experimental

Vince.
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