Idea: Comments on system catalogs?

On Wed, Jul 04, 2007 at 01:03:20PM +0200, Dawid Kuroczko wrote:

Hello.

I think it could be a nice idea to put descriptions from
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.2/static/catalogs.html
into system catalogs itself. I.e., make a bunch of

COMMENT ON COLUMN pg_class.relname
IS 'Name of the table, index, view, etc.';
...
COMMENT ON COLUMN pg_class.relkind
IS 'r = ordinary table, i = index, S = sequence, v = view, c =
composite type, t = TOAST table';

and so on.

I think it could be helpful, when you're writing your own selects
on system catalogs.

Perhaps it could be optional (as a contrib .sql file).

If you like the idea, I could prepare a script which will
convert documentation into .sql file with series of
COMMENT ON .. IS ...;

Actually, this does exist for some things in the catalog; I suspect it
just wasn't done in the past (perhaps Postgres didn't originally have
comments). I think it would be a useful addition. But I think it'd need
to be more than just a .sql file (initdb would probably need to be
modified). Ideally, we'd be able to suck the info out of the appropriate
.sgml files.
--
Jim Nasby decibel@decibel.org
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com 512.569.9461 (cell)

Jim C. Nasby wrote:
-- Start of PGP signed section.

On Wed, Jul 04, 2007 at 01:03:20PM +0200, Dawid Kuroczko wrote:

Hello.

I think it could be a nice idea to put descriptions from
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.2/static/catalogs.html
into system catalogs itself. I.e., make a bunch of

COMMENT ON COLUMN pg_class.relname
IS 'Name of the table, index, view, etc.';
...
COMMENT ON COLUMN pg_class.relkind
IS 'r = ordinary table, i = index, S = sequence, v = view, c =
composite type, t = TOAST table';

and so on.

I think it could be helpful, when you're writing your own selects
on system catalogs.

Perhaps it could be optional (as a contrib .sql file).

If you like the idea, I could prepare a script which will
convert documentation into .sql file with series of
COMMENT ON .. IS ...;

Actually, this does exist for some things in the catalog; I suspect it
just wasn't done in the past (perhaps Postgres didn't originally have
comments). I think it would be a useful addition. But I think it'd need
to be more than just a .sql file (initdb would probably need to be
modified). Ideally, we'd be able to suck the info out of the appropriate
.sgml files.

Added to TODO:

* Add comments on system tables/columns using the information in
catalogs.sgml

Ideally the information would be pulled from the SGML file
automatically.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://postgres.enterprisedb.com

+ If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +

On Fri, Mar 7, 2008 at 3:51 PM, Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> wrote:
~> Jim C. Nasby wrote:

On Wed, Jul 04, 2007 at 01:03:20PM +0200, Dawid Kuroczko wrote:

Hello.

I think it could be a nice idea to put descriptions from
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.2/static/catalogs.html
into system catalogs itself. I.e., make a bunch of

COMMENT ON COLUMN pg_class.relname
IS 'Name of the table, index, view, etc.';
...
COMMENT ON COLUMN pg_class.relkind
IS 'r = ordinary table, i = index, S = sequence, v = view, c =
composite type, t = TOAST table';

Actually, this does exist for some things in the catalog; I suspect it
just wasn't done in the past (perhaps Postgres didn't originally have
comments). I think it would be a useful addition. But I think it'd need
to be more than just a .sql file (initdb would probably need to be
modified). Ideally, we'd be able to suck the info out of the appropriate
.sgml files.

Added to TODO:

* Add comments on system tables/columns using the information in
catalogs.sgml

Ideally the information would be pulled from the SGML file
automatically.

Since I have raised the issue back then, I volunteer for doing this TODO.

As I am lazy by nature, I am sure I will try to use SGML files instead of
tediuos copy&paste routine. ;-)

Regards,
Dawid