Tom Lane wrote:
In short, I think there's a reasonably good case to be made for losing the hidden dependency and re-adopting the viewpoint that saying SERIAL is *exactly* the same as making a sequence and then making a default expression that uses the sequence. Nothing behind the curtain.
I speak more as a user than a hacker, but I do still lurk here ;)
The way sequences are handled is imho one of the strongest features. The possiblity to query nextval is bordering on divine.
I have however stopped using serials for anything else than quick mockup examples. The work of defining the sequence itself and setting acl's is imho trivial compared to consistency.
I would actually suggest throwing a warning, that sequences are the proper way of doing it when people use serials - maybe even mark serial-types as obsolete in the docs.
I strongly subscribe to the principle of least astonishment, and that means either pure sequences, a mysqlesqe auto_increment or both - but I fail to see, how the "macro"thing serial will ever work that way. It goes without saying, that I dislike auto_increment.
Svenne
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