Re: proposal: alternative psql commands quit and exit

"David G. Johnston" <david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> I'll agree that exiting the program is a special case that merits
> consideration - and it has been given that in the form of the concession to
> the word "help" in order to get the reader unfamiliar with our backslash
> prefix a non-backslash way to obtain that knowledge apart from reading our
> docs. Under that premise I would accept (lacking compelling arguments for
> why its a bad idea) this proposal for quit/exit but am against anything
> beyond that.

Meh. I never thought that the "help" business was particularly well
thought out, and this proposal isn't better. The reason is that to
avoid breaking multi-line SQL command entry, we can only accept such
a command when the input buffer is empty. A psql novice is unlikely
to be familiar with that concept, let alone know that \r or ^C is the
way to get there. There's a weak argument that "help" is of some
value because it's likely to be the first thing a novice types, but
that doesn't apply for quit/exit. The typical interaction I'd foresee
is more like

postgres=> select 2+2 (user forgets semicolon)
postgres-> help
postgres-> quit
postgres-> exit

with nothing accomplished except to increase the user's frustration
each time. Eventually she'll hit on ^D and get out of it, but none
of these allegedly novice-friendly "features" helped at all.

regards, tom lane