Re: Unknown annotation '-cim' in source code

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: "David G(dot) Johnston" <david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com>
Cc: Steve Lau <stevelauc(at)outlook(dot)com>, "pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org" <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: Unknown annotation '-cim' in source code
Date: 2024-07-04 04:49:37
Message-ID: 3340162.1720068577@sss.pgh.pa.us
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"David G. Johnston" <david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> On Wed, Jul 3, 2024 at 8:46 PM Steve Lau <stevelauc(at)outlook(dot)com> wrote:
>> While reading the source code, I noticed comments like "-cim 9/10/89".

> It's the initials of the person who, back in 1989, wrote the preceding
> comments

Right.

> PostgreSQL inherited the code which is when our git history begins. This
> comment was part of the original source.

We lack any source-code-control history before 1996, so there's no
way to be sure who wrote that, unless you can identify some Berkeley
Postgres person with those initials.

There are other cases in the code with other initials. The practice
fell out of favor among the open-source PG community in the late 90s,
possibly because Tom Lockhart and I share the same initials so it
became completely impossible to avoid confusion :-(. I think the
surviving "tgl" comments in the code are mostly his, but I've not
counted carefully.

regards, tom lane

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