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From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
To: Heikki Linnakangas <heikki.linnakangas@enterprisedb.com>
Cc: Thom Brown <thombrown@gmail.com>
Cc: Joseph Conway <mail@joeconway.com>
Cc: Dave Page <dpage@pgadmin.org>
Cc: Steve Atkins <steve@blighty.com>
Cc: pgsql-docs <pgsql-docs@postgresql.org>
Subject: Re: Railroad diagrams, a-la sqlite
Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 17:04:18 -0400
Message-ID: <13866.1279400658@sss.pgh.pa.us> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <4C4215CD.6020500@enterprisedb.com>
References: <2AACFC47-C121-4549-B015-AC4FCA9380CE@blighty.com>
	<AANLkTikzQCj8kJPAINMSGjypjKbWxmcXe2WqWqeenKxU@mail.gmail.com>
	<AANLkTiniHvonP00ltJgXsB1xOyUPggmrWA4V05PKov5L@mail.gmail.com>
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	<4C4212F8.1080704@joeconway.com>
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	<4C4215CD.6020500@enterprisedb.com>

Heikki Linnakangas <heikki.linnakangas@enterprisedb.com> writes:
> On 17/07/10 23:36, Thom Brown wrote:
>> On 17 July 2010 21:30, Joseph Conway<mail@joeconway.com>  wrote:
>>> Oracle SELECT:
>>> http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B14117_01/server.101/b10759/statements_10002.htm

>> Yeah, that kinda chaotic.  Looks like a sadistic puzzle from the
>> Krypton Factor. :S

> Mind you, that syntax is genuinely complex. It would look chaotic using 
> the text representation we currently use as well.

Well, our own SELECT syntax isn't exactly short:
http://developer.postgresql.org/pgdocs/postgres/sql-select.html

The problem I personally see with railroad diagrams is that there's
so much whitespace in 'em.  Our current SELECT syntax diagram fits on
a page, more or less, but it would span multiple pages in railroad form.
That doesn't make for a leap forward in comprehensibility IMO.

			regards, tom lane



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