On 16 July 2010 13:49, Bruce Momjian <br...@momjian.us> wrote: > Bruce Momjian wrote: >> Andrew Dunstan wrote: >> > >> > >> > Bruce Momjian wrote: >> > > I assume SHOW TABLES would only be useful for interactive terminal >> > > sesssions, not for application code (which should use >> > > information_schema), so what non-psql interactive terminal programs are >> > > there? >> > > >> > > >> > >> > I think your assumption is questionable. >> > >> > Plenty of people use MySQL's "SHOW TABLES" in non-interactive settings >> > (for good or ill). That's why any suggestion that we should return >> > anything other than a resultset seems like a really terrible idea to me. >> >> If they are writing an application, finding the query to show all tables >> is the least of their problems. I don't see how SHOW TABLE >> significantly helps in that case, except make things 0.001% easier, >> while creating duplicate functionality in Postgres. > > What would be interesting is if SHOW TABLES was psql-only, and showed > the output in multi-column format, like ls -C. That would a a new > display format and new useful functionality. > > --
The problem is people are stating different requirements. - to make it easy for new users of psql - to simplify fetching basic database information from any client application - to ease transition between MySQL and PostgreSQL The outcome would depend on what's needed. Like providing a pg_user_tables view for people to select from, using LIST TABLES as a more meaningful alternative to SHOW TABLES, providing hints for MySQL users using psql... etc. Thom -- Sent via pgsql-hackers mailing list (pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-hackers
