Re: attndims, typndims still not enforced, but make the value within a sane threshold

On Thu, Dec 5, 2024 at 11:33:22AM -0500, Tom Lane wrote:
> Alvaro Herrera <alvherre(at)alvh(dot)no-ip(dot)org> writes:
> > On 2024-Dec-05, Kirill Reshke wrote:
> >> I see no open items in this thread. Are there any issues about v1?
>
> > Should we leave TupleDescInitEntry()'s API alone, to avoid breaking the
> > compilation of every extension in the world?
>
> I fear the howls of pain from extension authors will be entirely
> drowned out by the howls of pain from application authors whose
> queries are broken by the disappearance of two catalog columns.
> A quick search at codesearch.debian.net shows that while there's
> not that many references to attndims, some of them are in such
> never-heard-of-it applications as PHP. typndims has some outside
> queries fetching it as well.
>
> I don't think we can do this as presented. Maybe we could do
> something like constrain the stored value to be only 0 or 1,
> but how much does that improve matters?

Well, then the question becomes will we retain useless system columns
forever?

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> https://momjian.us
EDB https://enterprisedb.com

Do not let urgent matters crowd out time for investment in the future.