Received: from malur.postgresql.org ([217.196.149.56]) by arkaria.postgresql.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:256) (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1iddEN-0006S7-Bv for pgsql-docs@arkaria.postgresql.org; Sat, 07 Dec 2019 16:46:55 +0000 Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=malur.postgresql.org) by malur.postgresql.org with esmtp (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1iddEL-0002DT-H9 for pgsql-docs@arkaria.postgresql.org; Sat, 07 Dec 2019 16:46:53 +0000 Received: from makus.postgresql.org ([2001:4800:3e1:1::229]) by malur.postgresql.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:256) (Exim 4.89) (envelope-from ) id 1iddEL-0002DM-6Q for pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org; Sat, 07 Dec 2019 16:46:53 +0000 Received: from sss.pgh.pa.us ([66.207.139.130]) by makus.postgresql.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1iddEI-0002Nj-Mn for pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org; Sat, 07 Dec 2019 16:46:51 +0000 Received: from sss1.sss.pgh.pa.us (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by sss.pgh.pa.us (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id xB7Gkmv0029012; Sat, 7 Dec 2019 11:46:48 -0500 From: Tom Lane To: Julien Rouhaud cc: Tatsuo Ishii , pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org Subject: Re: Typo in perform.sgml? In-reply-to: References: <20191207.200500.989741087350666720.t-ishii@sraoss.co.jp> Comments: In-reply-to Julien Rouhaud message dated "Sat, 07 Dec 2019 14:01:37 +0100" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-ID: <29010.1575737207.1@sss.pgh.pa.us> Date: Sat, 07 Dec 2019 11:46:47 -0500 Message-ID: <29011.1575737207@sss.pgh.pa.us> List-Id: List-Help: List-Subscribe: List-Post: List-Owner: List-Archive: Precedence: bulk Julien Rouhaud writes: > On Sat, Dec 7, 2019 at 12:05 PM Tatsuo Ishii wrote: >> Around line 904 of perform.sgml >> "These node types have the ability to discard subnodes which they are >> able to determine won't contain any records required by the query." >> >> I was not able to parse this. Maybe "that they " is needed after >> "determine"? > Agreed. Also, I'm not a native english speaker either, but the > "which" sounds weird too. How about: > These node types have the ability to discard subnodes for which they > are able to determine that won't contain any records required by the > query. Hm. A grammar purist would say that the "which" should be "that", because it's introducing a restrictive clause. But I think the real problem here is that "contain" is a crummy choice of verb: the notion of a plan node "containing" records is what seems weird to me. I think "produce" might work better. Also, there's a lot of unnecessary words here; I think we should be trying to make the sentence shorter not longer. How about something like "These node types will discard subnodes when they detect that a particular subnode won't produce any records required by the query." Actually, that whole para could do with a rewrite; whoever wrote it was obviously not familiar with Strunk & White's dictum "Omit needless words". regards, tom lane