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From: David G. Johnston <[email protected]>
To: Sergei Katkovsky <[email protected]>
Cc: Tom Lane <[email protected]>
Cc: Jeff Davis <[email protected]>
Cc: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: BPCHAR description in 8.3. Character Types is misleading and incomplete
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2025 17:08:41 -0400
Message-ID: <CAKFQuwbqcQY=H9YRs=bJ4m4kvXu19hBNKVhu992_cUvpcUTzvQ@mail.gmail.com> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <CAAf8JyL4xYd4qFD5_5x9hF03L=xjkx6sXHOU8DhU8Y_f7FBw5A@mail.gmail.com>
References: <[email protected]>
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On Thursday, October 16, 2025, Sergei Katkovsky <[email protected]>
wrote:

> On Thu, Oct 16, 2025 at 11:18 PM David G. Johnston
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >> > Think of padding as a noun, not a verb.  “The value contains
> padding”.  Not, “ I am padding the value”.
> >


> I'm afraid that adding
> another meaning to the word 'padded' in the same text will cause even
> more confusion.
>

I’m just trying to phrase the documentation for bpchar so that the “bp”,
which stands for “blank-padded”, is justified.  The generic term for the
trailing spaces here is padding in the noun sense.

I do understand the terminology confusion with the verb padding.  And see
why “trimmed” is actively confusing.  The prose probably needs to resolve
this - and technically does from what I’m reading.

You may wish to move on from critiquing my suggested changes and instead
propose something concrete of your own.  Provide a third choice besides
status-quo and my option.

Though I’m doubtful there is a nice precise hyphenated word to be found
here for “treats any trailing spaces as being semantically insignificant”.

David J.


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