To: Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>
cc: Kevin Grittner <Kevin.Grittner@wicourts.gov>,
	Jon Nelson <jnelson+pgsql@jamponi.net>,
	"<pgsql-bugs@postgresql.org>" <pgsql-bugs@postgresql.org>
Subject: Re: [PERFORM] typoed column name, but postgres didn't grump 
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Comments: In-reply-to Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>
	message dated "Fri, 29 Oct 2010 17:48:59 -0400"
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2010 17:53:52 -0400
Message-ID: <9887.1288389232@sss.pgh.pa.us>
From: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>

Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> writes:
> Yeah, I think we're going to have to live with it, at least for 8.4.  One could make an argument that 9.0 is new enough we could get away with a small behavior change to avoid a large amount of user confusion.  But that may be a self-serving argument based on wanting to tamp down the bug reports rather than a wisely considered policy decision...  so I'm not sure I quite buy it.

Well, tamping down the bug reports is good from the users' point of view
too.

The argument for not changing it in the back branches is that there
might be someone depending on the 8.4/9.0 behavior.  However, that seems
moderately unlikely.  Also, if we wait, that just increases the chances
that someone will come to depend on it, and then have a problem when
they migrate to 9.1.  I think the "risk of breakage" argument has a lot
more force when considering long-standing behaviors than things we just
recently introduced.

			regards, tom lane