Received: from maia.hub.org (maia-3.hub.org [200.46.204.243]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AE8FE632C34 for ; Sat, 17 Jul 2010 17:43:05 -0300 (ADT) Received: from mail.postgresql.org ([200.46.204.86]) by maia.hub.org (mx1.hub.org [200.46.204.243]) (amavisd-maia, port 10024) with ESMTP id 52090-03 for ; Sat, 17 Jul 2010 20:42:57 +0000 (UTC) X-Greylist: domain auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey-1.7.6 Received: from exprod7og126.obsmtp.com (exprod7og126.obsmtp.com [64.18.2.206]) by mail.postgresql.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 042D0632C31 for ; Sat, 17 Jul 2010 17:42:57 -0300 (ADT) Received: from source ([209.85.215.171]) by exprod7ob126.postini.com ([64.18.6.12]) with SMTP ID DSNKTEIV0DAKaFXYOEysXwryGov0OE/zx0U7@postini.com; Sat, 17 Jul 2010 13:42:57 PDT Received: by eyg7 with SMTP id 7so1733307eyg.30 for ; Sat, 17 Jul 2010 13:42:55 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.213.25.138 with SMTP id z10mr989043ebb.84.1279399375474; Sat, 17 Jul 2010 13:42:55 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [192.168.1.117] (dsl-hkibrasgw2-ff7ac300-240.dhcp.inet.fi [88.195.122.240]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id a48sm30964032eei.0.2010.07.17.13.42.54 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Sat, 17 Jul 2010 13:42:54 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <4C4215CD.6020500@enterprisedb.com> Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2010 23:42:53 +0300 From: Heikki Linnakangas User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; fi-FI; rv:1.9.1.10) Gecko/20100619 Iceowl/1.0b1 Icedove/3.0.5 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Thom Brown CC: Joseph Conway , Dave Page , Steve Atkins , pgsql-docs Subject: Re: Railroad diagrams, a-la sqlite References: <2AACFC47-C121-4549-B015-AC4FCA9380CE@blighty.com> <4C4212F8.1080704@joeconway.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-2.8 tagged_above=-5 required=5 tests=BAYES_05=-0.5, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_MED=-2.3 X-Spam-Level: X-Archive-Number: 201007/123 X-Sequence-Number: 5779 On 17/07/10 23:36, Thom Brown wrote: > On 17 July 2010 21:30, Joseph Conway wrote: >> On 7/17/10 1:26 PM, Thom Brown wrote: >>> On 17 July 2010 21:23, Dave Page wrote: >>>> On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 9:19 PM, Thom Brown wrote: >>>>> While they're quite attractive, I actually see them being more >>>>> confusing than helpful personally, but I could be wrong. I reckon >>>>> there might be clearer ways of representing statement options. The >>>>> real problems with the railroad design come when there are lots of >>>>> references to other diagrams, and you end up with about 10 just for 1 >>>>> statement. >>>>> >>>>> Is there a way of testing their usefulness? >>>> >>>> Personal experience? I used to find them quite useful when I was >>>> starting out with Informix. >>>> >>> >>> I guess I'm quite used to the existing statement definitions. It's an >>> elegant idea, just wondering if it scales sanely. Are the examples of >>> more complex statements? >> >> Oracle SELECT: >> >> http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B14117_01/server.101/b10759/statements_10002.htm >> >> Joe >> > > 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. -- Heikki Linnakangas EnterpriseDB http://www.enterprisedb.com