Subject: Outdated docs on techdocs

From: David Fetter <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 08:26:58 -0800

Kind people,

There are some pieces of techdocs that now supply inaccurate info.
For example,
http://techdocs.postgresql.org/techdocs/updatingcolumns.php

says some things that are no longer true about ALTER TABLE, which is
confusing at best.  Is there some way to remove it pending edits?  I'd
be happy to do the edits :)

Cheers,
D
-- 
David Fetter [email-masked] http://fetter.org/
phone: +1 510 893 6100    cell: +1 415 235 3778

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From: Robert Treat <[email-masked]>
Date: 18 Dec 2003 11:44:10 -0500

> be happy to do the edits :)

Well... I can see that information being useful to people on older
systems, so I can add a disclaimer that some of the information no
longer applies to newer versions of postgresql until you can get the
editing done. alternatively you could rewrite the article as an update
for 7.4 systems, and I'll just put a note that the old article is being
keep for historical purposes...

Robert Treat
-- 
Build A Brighter Lamp :: Linux Apache {middleware} PostgreSQL

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From: David Fetter <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 08:53:50 -0800

On Thu, Dec 18, 2003 at 11:44:10AM -0500, Robert Treat wrote:
> > says some things that are no longer true about ALTER TABLE, which
> > is confusing at best.  Is there some way to remove it pending
> > edits?  I'd be happy to do the edits :)
> 
> editing done.

Can do.  Where do I get it, and how do I submit the edits?

> alternatively you could rewrite the article as an update for 7.4
> systems, and I'll just put a note that the old article is being keep
> for historical purposes...

I see we need to grasp a nettle here.  How many versions can the
community support?  Even 7.3 is starting to look a little long in the
tooth...

Cheers,
D

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From: "Marc G. Fournier" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 13:31:27 -0400 (AST)

> community support?  Even 7.3 is starting to look a little long in the

If its a matter of existing docs for older versions, IMHO, unlimited ...

----
Marc G. Fournier           Hub.Org Networking Services (http://www.hub.org)
Email: [email-masked]           Yahoo!: yscrappy              ICQ: 7615664

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From: Robert Treat <[email-masked]>
Date: 18 Dec 2003 13:02:16 -0500

> If its a matter of existing docs for older versions, IMHO, unlimited ...

I think I'm parroting Marc here... if the text is already written, why
not keep it around?  We just need to clearly mark it as older
information.  If you want to write something new then as far as I am
concerned you can write for the most recent brand new version and to
heck with the older cruft :-)

Robert Treat

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From: "Marc G. Fournier" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 15:02:37 -0400 (AST)

> heck with the older cruft :-)

Not sure the scope of the changes required, but would an appendum to
current text not be less confusing?

----

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From: David Fetter <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 27 Dec 2003 00:14:32 -0800

On Thu, Dec 18, 2003 at 08:53:50AM -0800, David Fetter wrote:
> > > There are some pieces of techdocs that now supply inaccurate
> > > info.  For example,
> > > says some things that are no longer true about ALTER TABLE,
> > > which is confusing at best.  Is there some way to remove it
> > > pending edits?  I'd be happy to do the edits :)
> > 
> > longer applies to newer versions of postgresql until you can get
> > the editing done.
> 

Ya know, looking over this one and a couple of others, they should
just be marked 'Obsolete.'

Here's what I've found so far on http://techdocs.postgresql.org:

Updating columns in PostgreSQL tables effectively by Joel Burton
Compensating for Unimplemented Features in PostgreSQL 7.1 by John Pagakis and Todd Gauthier
Oracle Style Data Dictionary views for PostgreSQL by Chris Brown
--hasn't been updated in over 2 years, and PostgreSQL now has its own
data dictionary.

The following whole sections refer to uselessly out-of-date versions
of PostgreSQL:

"Known Bugs and Fixes"
"Source code and additional functions"
"Startup/shutdown scripts for PostgreSQL"

This one's slightly amusing:
PostgreSQL 101 by Shridhar Daithankar

ib/WikiDB/backend/PearDB.php:698: Fatal[256]: wikidb_backend_mysql:
fatal database error

    * DB Error: unknown error
    * (SELECT linkee.* FROM link, page AS linker, page AS linkee WHERE
    * linkfrom=linker.id AND linkto=linkee.id AND
    * linker.pagename='PostgresQL101' ORDER BY linkee.pagename
    * [nativecode=1030 ** Got error 28 from table handler])

The PostgreSQL FAQ is at http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faqs/FAQ.html
not http://www.postgresql.org/docs/FAQ.html

Re: the MySQL section, just my NSHO, all the entries except Joel
Barton's excellent "Things to find out about when moving from MySQL to
PostgreSQL" should come with a disclaimer like:

    Although these can help you transfer raw data from a MySQL
    database, you must consider the work only partially done at that
    point.  You will almost certainly need to re-design the database,
    as it will have been designed around MySQL's inherant
    limitations.

BTW, is there something that goes through regularly and checks to see
if the links still link?  If there isn't, I can find one to put in
cron & report to whomever it should report to :)

Cheers,
D