X-Original-To: pgsql-docs@postgresql.org Received: from mail.gmx.net (mail.gmx.net [213.165.65.60]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 71141474E44 for ; Fri, 14 Mar 2003 19:36:40 -0500 (EST) Received: (qmail 4037 invoked by uid 0); 15 Mar 2003 00:36:42 -0000 Received: from p3E9E70EC.dip0.t-ipconnect.de (62.158.112.236) by mail.gmx.net (mp005-rz3) with SMTP; 15 Mar 2003 00:36:42 -0000 Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2003 01:37:10 +0100 (CET) From: Peter Eisentraut X-X-Sender: peter@peter.localdomain To: pgsql-docs@postgresql.org Subject: Row vs. tuple Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Archive-Number: 200303/25 X-Sequence-Number: 1703 In some places the documentation uses the term "tuple" to mean "row version" (in the MVCC sense). This choice of terms is puzzling me; where does it come from? In the literature available to me, the term "tuple" is used as the mathematical equivalent of "row", meaning that table/row/column parallels relation/tuple/attribute. This terminology is also used in other parts of PostgreSQL. For example, libpq and derived interfaces use "tuple" in function names to refer to rows. Should we not make this usage consistent? I suggest we use "row version" when we mean row version, which will also make things clearer to less experienced users. -- Peter Eisentraut peter_e@gmx.net