Re: Adding since-version tags to the docs?

On Mon, Aug 31, 2015 at 4:01 PM, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:

> "Shulgin, Oleksandr" <oleksandr(dot)shulgin(at)zalando(dot)de> writes:
> > I often find it pity that our docs are missing any information on since
> > when a certain GUC setting, SQL-level command or function was introduced.
> > It would be nice if we could make a script that would parse the sgml
> files
> > and for every symbol it finds it would add a tag like "Since version
> 9.x".
>
> TBH, I think this is a horrid idea. We occasionally manually add remarks
> like "since version x.y, Postgres does this". Inevitably, that just bulks
> up the documentation; and it starts to look seriously silly in a few years
> when x.y and all its predecessors are out of support.

Well, I wouldn't name it outright silly: what's so bad about knowing that
certain feature was there since 9.0, for example? I think can actually
help then sending a docs link to someone who can read the docs, but not the
code (or at least not that easily).

I would also find it more reassuring for myself to read it stated in the
document rather than trying to track down a version where the feature did
appear using git log --grep or the mentioned click-through technique for
older versions. Can't speak for the others, of course.

It'll be a real
> mess if we do that for everything.
>

I share the fear that it could become messy, but it doesn't necessary *have
to* be a mess.

--
Alex