Re: FWD: Re: Updated backslash consistency patch

* Robert Haas (robertmhaas(at)gmail(dot)com) wrote:
> On the other hand, I want to look at and search my user-defined
> functions FREQUENTLY. I don't care about the system functions. If I
> type \df a*, it's not because I want to see all 6 versions of the
> absolute value function and 61 other functions, it's because I don't
> want to think hard enough to remember how I spelled the first word in
> one of my functions that I know starts with "a".

I have to agree with this in general, to be honest. We use alot of
pl/pgsql functions and having the system functions be in \df and be
included in '\df a*' searches has really been annoying, not to mention
that it's time consuming. I do understand Tom's concern, but I wonder
if we could address is in a different way- could we WARN about
functions being created which overlap with system functions at CREATE
time? I'm pretty sure people don't generally do that on purpose, and if
they do, they need to realize they have to treat it specially
afterwards to make sure they get their function called..

> I can't imagine why it's reasonable for me to want to see a list of
> only my own functions, but it's NOT reasonable for me to want to
> SEARCH the list of only my own functions.

I would like the ability to search system functions too, I've had
occation where that's easier than going to the docs for a particular
function, but my impression was that'd be possible through \dfS or
something?

Thanks,

Stephen