I wonder if *exit;* to terminate loop be confused with exit psql in case of bad syntax. then instead of reporting error in plpgsql it would just silently exit?..
2017-12-08 15:19 GMT+00:00 Tom Lane <t...@sss.pgh.pa.us>: > "David G. Johnston" <david.g.johns...@gmail.com> writes: > > I'll agree that exiting the program is a special case that merits > > consideration - and it has been given that in the form of the concession > to > > the word "help" in order to get the reader unfamiliar with our backslash > > prefix a non-backslash way to obtain that knowledge apart from reading > our > > docs. Under that premise I would accept (lacking compelling arguments > for > > why its a bad idea) this proposal for quit/exit but am against anything > > beyond that. > > Meh. I never thought that the "help" business was particularly well > thought out, and this proposal isn't better. The reason is that to > avoid breaking multi-line SQL command entry, we can only accept such > a command when the input buffer is empty. A psql novice is unlikely > to be familiar with that concept, let alone know that \r or ^C is the > way to get there. There's a weak argument that "help" is of some > value because it's likely to be the first thing a novice types, but > that doesn't apply for quit/exit. The typical interaction I'd foresee > is more like > > postgres=> select 2+2 (user forgets semicolon) > postgres-> help > postgres-> quit > postgres-> exit > > with nothing accomplished except to increase the user's frustration > each time. Eventually she'll hit on ^D and get out of it, but none > of these allegedly novice-friendly "features" helped at all. > > regards, tom lane > >