more improvements to release notes

Neil Conway wrote:

This patch makes a bunch of improvements to the release notes. I only
modified release.sgml -- HISTORY will need to be regenerated.

I was able to remove almost all of the "Other uncategorized" release
note entries, but left a few that I wasn't sure what to do with. We
should remove this section, and move the remaining entries to other
sections if necessary.

I had a few questions on some of the entries:

What is the following release note entry supposed to mean? "FETCH 0"
doesn't "do nothing", it now fetches the current cursor row. Bruce,
could you clarify this please?

* MOVE/FETCH 0 now does nothing; return value of MOVE/FETCH 1/0
varies based on the current offset in the cursor

We had MOVE/FETCH 0 handling that didn't match the SQL spec. MOVE 0 used
to go to the end of the cursor, and FETCH 0 would return the entire
cursor. We were basically using 0 to mean ALL, which was clearly wrong.

This entry is plainly wrong:

* Cause FETCH 1 to return the current cursor row, or zero if at
beginning/end of cursor, per SQL spec (Bruce)

This should read, I think:

* Cause FETCH 1 to return the current cursor row number, or zero if at

------

beginning/end of cursor, per SQL spec (Bruce)

FETCH 0 is what actually returns the current cursor row, and returning
"zero" when a row value is expected wouldn't make much sense. I've
changed it to just say:

* Cause FETCH 0 to return the current cursor row, per SQL spec
(Bruce)

If I've missed some of the intent of the original entry, let me know.

I have adjusted this in your patch, but we can continue to work on it.

These two entries are duplicates, right?

* Have SHOW DATESTYLE generate output similar to that used by SET
DATESTYLE (Tom)
* Change DATESTYLE to output its value in a more common format
(Tom)

Yes, I think so.

I wasn't sure, so I didn't make this change in the patch.

I removed the duplicate.

Patch applied with minor FETCH adjustment. We will have to revisit
this.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073

Neil Conway wrote:

This entry is plainly wrong:

* Cause FETCH 1 to return the current cursor row, or zero if at
beginning/end of cursor, per SQL spec (Bruce)

FETCH 0 is what actually returns the current cursor row, and returning
"zero" when a row value is expected wouldn't make much sense. I've
changed it to just say:

I now see where I was wrong. It should be:

* Cause FETCH 1 to return the next cursor row, or zero if at

----

beginning/end of cursor, per SQL spec (Bruce)

Updated.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073

On Wed, 2003-10-22 at 13:26, Bruce Momjian wrote:

* Cause FETCH 1 to return the next cursor row, or zero if at

----

beginning/end of cursor, per SQL spec (Bruce)

That's better, but still wrong: what does it mean for FETCH 1 to "return
zero if at the beginning/end of cursor"? If we're at the end of the
cursor, we return an empty result set, not "zero".

-Neil

Neil Conway wrote:

On Wed, 2003-10-22 at 13:26, Bruce Momjian wrote:

* Cause FETCH 1 to return the next cursor row, or zero if at

----

beginning/end of cursor, per SQL spec (Bruce)

That's better, but still wrong: what does it mean for FETCH 1 to "return
zero if at the beginning/end of cursor"? If we're at the end of the
cursor, we return an empty result set, not "zero".

Yes, it is mixing the return row with the return value of zero --- hence
we need to revisit this. I can't even remember how this is different
from 7.3. I remember applying these changes at the direction of others,
and not fully understanding all the issues.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073

Neil Conway wrote:

On Wed, 2003-10-22 at 13:26, Bruce Momjian wrote:

* Cause FETCH 1 to return the next cursor row, or zero if at

----

beginning/end of cursor, per SQL spec (Bruce)

That's better, but still wrong: what does it mean for FETCH 1 to "return
zero if at the beginning/end of cursor"? If we're at the end of the
cursor, we return an empty result set, not "zero".

OK, updated:

<listitem><para>Make MOVE/FETCH 0 now does nothing
(Bruce)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Cause MOVE/FETCH now returns the number of rows
moved/fetched, or zero if at the beginning/end of cursor,
per SQL spec (Bruce)</para></listitem>

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073

On Sun, 2003-10-26 at 00:50, Bruce Momjian wrote:

<listitem><para>Make MOVE/FETCH 0 now does nothing
(Bruce)</para></listitem>

Still wrong :-) "Make ... now does nothing" is ungrammatical.

The other modified entry is incorrect for the same reason ("Cause ...
now returns").

-Neil

Neil Conway wrote:

On Sun, 2003-10-26 at 00:50, Bruce Momjian wrote:

<listitem><para>Make MOVE/FETCH 0 now does nothing
(Bruce)</para></listitem>

Still wrong :-) "Make ... now does nothing" is ungrammatical.

The other modified entry is incorrect for the same reason ("Cause ...
now returns").

Fixed --- should be OK now.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073