Re: primary key error message

On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 4:24 PM, Peter Eisentraut <peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net> wrote:
>> Why bother?
>
> Because unique constraints and primary keys are different things and it
> would be slightly less confusing that way.

I don't really see why it would be any less confusing. You could
argue that someone might not know that the primary key acts like a
unique constraint, but if they don't, then they might be confused
about what it means to violate it.

Generally if the user is looking at something like \d they will see
the primary key as well as any unique indices. And the name of the
primary key will match the name from this error message. So I'm also
not sure how someone could get pointed in the wrong direction in the
first place.

>> And why bother now, when we're in the middle of the last
>> CommitFest and trying to move toward a release?
>
> Are you saying we can't discuss anything new during the commit fest?

Of course, I have no control over what anyone discusses. This is a
community and no one has a boss. But let me ask this. For which
release were you hoping to make this change? If 9.0, then it seems to
me that you've missed the deadline, which - according to my
understanding of the agreed-upon schedule - was six days ago. Or
perhaps you feel that that deadline should only apply to
non-committers? If so, we should be clear about that, because I have
a few things which I would have liked to submit but was unable to get
done before the start of the CommmitFest. I would be more than happy
to finish them up and propose them now, but my understanding is that
I'm not supposed to do that.

On the other hand, if you were hoping to make this change for 9.1,
then obviously there is no issue of a deadline. However, there is
still the issue of the CommitFest mandate, of which you are a
proponent, which, in your exact words, says that one should not "work
on new patches" during CommitFest and beta.

http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-hackers/2009-06/msg01514.php

I have previously expressed the view you might have been overreaching
a bit in that email, because I don't think it's realistic to say that
there is useful work for everyone to do during the entire time that we
are in beta, and if there is nothing someone can do to get the release
out sooner, then I think it's fine for them to work on their own
patches. But that certainly isn't the case right now.

...Robert