Re: Catalogs design question

Steve Howe writes:

> > The group array is a hack but the pg_proc array would be hard to replace
> > becauseit acts as part of the unique key used for cache lookups.
> This design itself bothers me.
> We have no other option left ? Like arrays being referenced in relations ?
> That's far from perfect, but at least would solve those issues and others
> which might appear in other catalogs...

In general, the system catalogs are far from a perfect example (or even an
example at all) for pure, normalized relational database design. A more
important concern in processing efficiency. For instance, currently the
execution of a procedure takes one catalog lookup versus (1 + nargs) in a
more normalized design. (This is an oversimplification, but you get the
idea.)

--
Peter Eisentraut peter_e(at)gmx(dot)net http://funkturm.homeip.net/~peter