Re: [DOCS] the sad state of our FAQs

From: Brendan Jurd <direvus(at)gmail(dot)com>
To: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
Cc: Alvaro Herrera <alvherre(at)commandprompt(dot)com>, Stefan Kaltenbrunner <stefan(at)kaltenbrunner(dot)cc>, PostgreSQL www <pgsql-www(at)postgresql(dot)org>, pgsql-docs(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: [DOCS] the sad state of our FAQs
Date: 2009-03-08 22:18:47
Message-ID: 37ed240d0903081518h5a79d197w1f71aabba00f99da@mail.gmail.com
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On Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 9:33 AM, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
> I think it might well be true though that it'd be better to have one FAQ
> with answers that say something like "Before version x.y, do this ...
> in x.y and later, do that ...".  That approach makes sure that people
> know that they are reading version-specific advice; whereas the separate
> FAQs approach makes it pretty easy for people to fail to notice that
> they are reading advice that's inappropriate for their version.

I agree, and note that at least one of the existing FAQs already
adopts this style of advice. In 4.19:

"In PostgreSQL versions < 8.3, ... This problem does not occur in
PostgreSQL 8.3 and later."

While I'm not a big fan of using comparison operators in English
prose, this approach seems to work well.

>
> I guess the sticking point would be about how long to preserve FAQ
> entries that are no longer relevant to the current release.
>

Really something to be worked out on a per-case basis I suppose. If
the goal of the FAQ is to help people who have Questions that are
Asked Frequently, then we could stop mentioning a release when people
stop asking questions about it?

Cheers,
BJ

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