Re: Typo/wording on https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/catalog-pg-class.html

From: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
To: Daniel Gustafsson <daniel(at)yesql(dot)se>
Cc: mpnash(at)google(dot)com, pgsql-docs(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: Typo/wording on https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/catalog-pg-class.html
Date: 2023-09-20 13:49:10
Message-ID: 520464.1695217750@sss.pgh.pa.us
Views: Raw Message | Whole Thread | Download mbox | Resend email
Thread:
Lists: pgsql-docs

Daniel Gustafsson <daniel(at)yesql(dot)se> writes:
>> On 20 Sep 2023, at 07:23, PG Doc comments form <noreply(at)postgresql(dot)org> wrote:
>> I've just read this:
>> "catalogs tables and most everything else that has columns or is otherwise
>> similar to a table"
>> It seems that it should be:
>> "catalogs tables and almost everything else that has columns or is otherwise
>> similar to a table"

> While I'm not a native english speaker I do believe this wording is correct
> (although I guess your version would be semantically the same or very close to
> it). It was done in commit 83501ef4ca some 20+ years ago.

"Most" here is good English, although I concede it's a slightly
old-fashioned usage. Maybe it'd be clearer to just remove the
word altogether.

If we were going to touch this sentence I'd worry about some other
things too. Use of "catalogs" as a verb is probably not the greatest
choice right here, since one could easily think that the verb is
missing and what was meant was "pg_class lists catalogs, [user]
tables, and ...". Also, I think that the reference to special
relations is obsolete --- we don't list any relkind for that anymore.
What probably does deserve to be called out in place of those is
composite types, since their appearance in pg_class might be pretty
surprising to newbies.

regards, tom lane

In response to

Responses

Browse pgsql-docs by date

  From Date Subject
Next Message Tom Lane 2023-09-22 17:04:02 Re: Typo/wording on https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/catalog-pg-class.html
Previous Message Daniel Gustafsson 2023-09-20 08:52:51 Re: Typo/wording on https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/catalog-pg-class.html