

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hiroshi Inoue [mailto:Inoue@tpf.co.jp] 
> Sent: 17 July 2002 05:12
> To: Bruce Momjian
> Cc: Christopher Kings-Lynne; Tom Lane; Rod Taylor; 
> PostgreSQL-development
> Subject: Re: [HACKERS] DROP COLUMN
> 
>
> > >From my perspective, when client coders like Dave Page and 
> others say
> > they would prefer the flag to the negative attno's, I don't have to 
> > understand.  I just take their word for it.
> 
> do they really love to check attisdropped everywhere ?
> Isn't it the opposite of the encapsulation ?
> I don't understand why we would do nothing for clients.

In pgAdmin's case, this involves one test (maybe 3 lines of code),
because all access to column info is made through one class. The reason
I voted for attisdropped is that the negative attnum's are assumed by
pgAdmin to be 'system columns', not 'any column that doesn't belong to
the user'. Coding around a change like that - whilst not necessarily
harder - would certainly be messier.

Regards, Dave.

Wed, 17 Jul 2002 08:36:54 +0100
"Dave Page" <dpage@vale-housing.co.uk>
Re: DROP COLUMN