Re: What do do about Object-Relational label, was Help me improve the 9.2 release announcement!

From: Jeff Davis <pgsql(at)j-davis(dot)com>
To: Chris Travers <chris(dot)travers(at)gmail(dot)com>
Cc: Rob Napier <rob(at)doitonce(dot)net(dot)au>, "Joshua D(dot) Drake" <jd(at)commandprompt(dot)com>, Josh Berkus <josh(at)agliodbs(dot)com>, pgsql-advocacy(at)postgresql(dot)org
Subject: Re: What do do about Object-Relational label, was Help me improve the 9.2 release announcement!
Date: 2012-08-09 17:22:32
Message-ID: 1344532952.18800.20.camel@jdavis
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On Tue, 2012-08-07 at 20:15 -0700, Chris Travers wrote:

> I wonder if it is time to re-examine the term object-relational and
> how we explain it.

+1.

My first suggestion to consider removing the word "object" fell flat,
but I think improving the documentation around that term would help
avoid confusion (including my confusion).

http://archives.postgresql.org/message-id/1335420139.28653.59.camel@jdavis

Based on that thread, it seems to have something to do with
extensibility, user-defined data types, polymorphism, and overloading.

But those things seem to matter only to extension authors, so I can't
think of a way to usefully describe object-relational to new users
(aside: those we call "users" are actually developers, so they will
expect that any object-relational features are intended for them).

The only object-relational things that a new user will see are the
things I mentioned in the email linked above: OIDs, inheritance, and dot
function call syntax. And I can't think of a way to describe those
things in a way that would connect with new users, either.

Regards,
Jeff Davis

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