AW: [HACKERS] DROPping tables with SERIALs

>> >> No, I think it should *only* substitute for NULL. Why assume
>> >> zero is special?
>>
>> > As I remember this is how SERIAL works in Informix.
>>
>> Ah. OK, if that's what they do then I agree we ought to act the
same.
>I hope that this wasn't to say that the SERIAL should substitute
for 0
>as well as NULL. That would be quite annoying. I say stick to
NULL.

Yes, 0 is an allowed value for a serial, that should not be
substituted.
I like the behavior that a NULL is substituted.
Informix is a little dull here. It forces a not null constraint, and
will therefore
raise an error if a null is inserted. I don't see any advantage in
this behavior.
(You are forced to skip the field in the insert statement to get a
generated serial)

Andreas