Re: SHOW TABLES

On Thu, 2010-07-15 at 16:20 +0100, Simon Riggs wrote:
> On Thu, 2010-07-15 at 11:05 -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> > Simon Riggs <simon(at)2ndQuadrant(dot)com> writes:
> > > The biggest turn off that most people experience when using PostgreSQL
> > > is that psql does not support memorable commands.
> >
> > > I would like to implement the following commands as SQL, allowing them
> > > to be used from any interface.
> >
> > > SHOW TABLES
> > > SHOW COLUMNS
> > > SHOW DATABASES
> >
> > This has been discussed before, and rejected before. Please see
> > archives.
>
> Many years ago. I think it's worth revisiting now in light of the number
> of people now joining the PostgreSQL community and the greater
> prevalence other ways of doing it. The world has changed, we have not.
>
> I'm not proposing any change in function, just a simpler syntax to allow
> the above information to be available, for newbies.
>
> Just for the record, I've never ever met anyone that said "Oh, this \d
> syntax makes so much sense. I'm a real convert to Postgres now you've
> shown me this". The reaction is always the opposite one; always
> negative. Which detracts from our efforts elsewhere.

I have to agree with Simon here. \d is ridiculous for the common user.

SHOW TABLES, SHOW COLUMNS makes a lot of sense. Just has something like
DESCRIBE TABLE foo makes a lot more sense than \d.

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake

--
PostgreSQL.org Major Contributor
Command Prompt, Inc: http://www.commandprompt.com/ - 509.416.6579
Consulting, Training, Support, Custom Development, Engineering