Re: PG 9.0 and standard_conforming_strings

In response to Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us>:

> Tom Lane wrote:
> > Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> writes:
> > > With the release of Postgres 9.0, should we consider changing the
> > > default for 'standard_conforming_strings'?
> >
> > I'm inclined to think we're going to have enough problems without that.
> > Changing that default will break, approximately speaking, every single
> > Postgres client app. Do you really think more than epsilon of them
> > are clean and ready for such a change?
>
> Well, if they aren't ready now, then we might as well say we are never
> going to change it and update the documentation and TODO list to reflect
> that --- we have had standard_conforming_strings since 2005. We can't
> keep pretending this will happen if we have no intention of doing it.

Announce it as a change for 9.1 NOW, and then it will be whoever's
fault if they aren't paying attention. Plenty of time to fix it
if it's announced now.

Also, as long as the config option is there, they can always flip it
back, which makes it MUCH lower overhead than the casting change was.
Overall, I don't think this change is nearly as severe as the cast
change in 8.3, and I don't feel it warrants the same eggshell walking.
When the decision is made to remove the standard_conforming_string
config option altogether ... that'll be a different story!

--
Bill Moran
http://www.potentialtech.com
http://people.collaborativefusion.com/~wmoran/