Re: Do we prefer software that works or software that looks good?

On Saturday 24 April 2004 08:09, Shachar Shemesh wrote:
> Robert Treat wrote:
> > Anyone who has studied software useability will
> >know that uppercase should, in general, be avoided as it hurts
> > readability.
>
> You convinced me! let's change the SQL standard.
>

We plan to, right after we have PostgreSQL achieve world domination. But we
can't abondon lower case now or it will weaken the argument when that time
comes. :-)

>
> Ok. I'm willing to change the subject to "are hurting eyes due to
> uppercase preferable to changing lots of code when migrating to PG from
> other database due to standard incomplience", if it would make you feel
> better.
>

ouch. s/code when/code from crappily written apps when/ :-)

> The point is that I am not against lower case, or pro uppercase. I HATE
> uppercase. I do think, however, that standards should be followed. The
> question is, when all is said and done, which is more useable. A DB that
> presents unquoted identifiers as uppercase, or one that allows easier
> migration of client apps from other DBs.
>

IMHO apps that apply quoted identifiers willy nilly are busted anyway, and it
is only by coincidence that they work on other databases if they work at all.
(And it's by extremely unfortunate coincidence that they might be spec
complient in that behavior.. but hey.)

Oh well... let's see if we can find a way to support both...

Robert Treat
--
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