Re: any way for ORDER BY x to imply NULLS FIRST in 8.3?

On Wed, 2007-11-07 at 10:23 -0500, Tom Lane wrote:
> Simon Riggs <simon(at)2ndquadrant(dot)com> writes:
> > Perhaps we can have a parameter?
> > default_null_sorting = 'last' # may alternatively be set to 'first'
>
> Not unless it's locked down at initdb time. Otherwise flipping the
> value bars you from using every existing index ... including those
> on the system catalogs ... which were made with the other setting.

Seems reasonable, as a first step.

There are a number of things that need to be moved from initdb to be
settable parameters, so this is just one of them, for later releases. We
should be able to enforce one setting of the parameter at bootstrap
time, so the system indexes all get built the standard way with the
initdb locale. We can then be free to set the locale for indexes after
that, but that is another issue.

> I put this in the same category as altering the identifier case-folding
> rules.

That has much less effect on application portability, so although the
issues are similar the importance is not.

> Yeah, it'd be great to be all things to all people, but the
> implementation pain and risk of breakage of existing applications
> isn't worth it.

I don't suggest we should be _all_ things to _all_ people, just that we
should try to be provide our capabilities to _more_ people. I think its
a great feature and I want to see more people appreciate that.

--
Simon Riggs
2ndQuadrant http://www.2ndQuadrant.com