Re: SHOW TABLES

On Fri, 2010-07-16 at 14:07 +0100, Thom Brown wrote:

> The problem is people are stating different requirements.
>
> - to make it easy for new users of psql
> - to simplify fetching basic database information from any client application
> - to ease transition between MySQL and PostgreSQL

Close, but I didn't state any of those as you have them.

I want to make it easy for newbies to get access to obvious things like
a list of tables, from *any* interactive application, wherever they
exist. There are many and various apps and not all of them work the
same. (The Windows installer ships two, for example). It would be nice
to tell people "just type SHOW TABLES" and have it be true 100% of the
time. They can remember that, or at least will try it if they can't
remember anything at all about our RDBMS.

Not trying to ease the transition between MySQL and PostgreSQL, it is
about making things obvious for overworked sysadmins and DBAs. Many
people are familiar with MySQL and many people use both. There are also
dozens of legacy RDBMS for DBAs to remember: Sybase, DB2, Informix,
Teradata, Ingres, MySQL and many others. Providing obvious commands that
help people who have never connected or only connect sporadically would
do much to help our cause. We are widely regarded as unhelpful,
"difficult to get started" etc.. If we had a dollar for every person
that has shouted "OMG what is the damn command on Postgres?" it would
easily fund this development.

This is not about simplifying things. It is about being obvious.

Light switches are usually at shoulder height next to a door. Our light
switches are 2 metres up, on the far side of the room. People are sick
of banging their knees on furniture while trying to grope for the light.
The light switch isn't so much hard to use, its just in the wrong place.
We must envisage what it is to be a person that doesn't know where the
switch is, or have forgotten. We don't need a programmable light switch
API, or a multi-function light remote control. Just a switch by all of
the doors.

(Oh, they're probably not called lights outside UK; room lamps maybe?)

--
Simon Riggs www.2ndQuadrant.com
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training and Services