> -----Original Message-----
> From: pgsql-hackers-owner@postgresql.org
> [mailtogsql-hackers-owner@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of Greg Stark
> Sent: 14 April 2005 04:54
> To: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
> Subject: Re: [HACKERS] Interactive docs idea
>
> Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@dcc.uchile.cl> writes:
>
> > I think it's an interesting idea to mail the comments to
> pgsql-docs, but
> > *please don't* start emulating the PHP behavior regarding comments
> > (leaving the "relevant" ones forever) :-( I think the PHP
> manuals are
> > very low quality because of the information in comments which really
> > belongs in the main text body (which is crappy in PHP's
> manual anyway
> > IMHO.)
>
> It seems that's not much of a danger -- the interactive
> Postgres documentation
> hardly gets any comments at all in the first place. It would be a big
> improvement if there were some way to encourage many more comments.

We can get from 2 - 10 a day I would guess. They get mailed to a closed
list for moderation.

Regards, Dave

---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 8: explain analyze is your friend

On Thu, 2005-04-14 at 03:56, Dave Page wrote:
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: pgsql-hackers-owner@postgresql.org
> > [mailtogsql-hackers-owner@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of Greg Stark
> > Sent: 14 April 2005 04:54
> > To: pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
> > Subject: Re: [HACKERS] Interactive docs idea
> >
> > Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@dcc.uchile.cl> writes:
> >
> > > I think it's an interesting idea to mail the comments to
> > pgsql-docs, but
> > > *please don't* start emulating the PHP behavior regarding comments
> > > (leaving the "relevant" ones forever) :-( I think the PHP
> > manuals are
> > > very low quality because of the information in comments which really
> > > belongs in the main text body (which is crappy in PHP's
> > manual anyway
> > > IMHO.)
> >
> > It seems that's not much of a danger -- the interactive
> > Postgres documentation
> > hardly gets any comments at all in the first place. It would be a big
> > improvement if there were some way to encourage many more comments.
>
> We can get from 2 - 10 a day I would guess. They get mailed to a closed
> list for moderation.
>

It's not so much closed as just separate and this was mainly because the
folks on -docs and the folks on -www didn't want all the traffic.

FWIW the PHP docs do actually integrate their comments into the docs,
although this seems to have slowed down much more over the recent years.
(I know they used to do it though, cause several comments I put in 5+
years ago have been integrated into the mainline docs).

On the PostgreSQL front, Tom has in the past gone through comments
around release time and integrated in the relevant changes; I've also
submitted a patch or two based on suggestions that have come across
since we got the new system in place. If you're interested in moderating
the comments and have time to write patches for new suggestions I'm sure
most people would be happy to have you on board.


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


---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 3: if posting/reading through Usenet, please send an appropriate
subscribe-nomail command to majordomo@postgresql.org so that your
message can get through to the mailing list cleanly

On Thu, Apr 14, 2005 at 11:54:56AM -0400, Robert Treat wrote:

> On the PostgreSQL front, Tom has in the past gone through comments
> around release time and integrated in the relevant changes; I've also
> submitted a patch or two based on suggestions that have come across
> since we got the new system in place. If you're interested in moderating
> the comments and have time to write patches for new suggestions I'm sure
> most people would be happy to have you on board.

So what list is this?

--
Alvaro Herrera (<alvherre[@]dcc.uchile.cl>)
"Java is clearly an example of a money oriented programming" (A. Stepanov)

---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 4: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster

"Dave Page" <dpage@vale-housing.co.uk> writes:

> We can get from 2 - 10 a day I would guess. They get mailed to a closed
> list for moderation.

Uhm, then where are they?

The comments in the PHP docs, while they contain a lot of garbage also contain
a lot of helpful tips and warnings. There's hardly any in the Postgres docs.


I think the idea of moderating the comments is inherently flawed. You can
either have the deliberate, planned documentation without the comments, or you
can have the wild-west style comments system, but trying to have it both ways
is impossible. It just leads to the current situation where the comments are
moribund.

--
greg


---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 6: Have you searched our list archives?

http://archives.postgresql.org

On Thu, Apr 14, 2005 at 01:39:11PM -0400, Greg Stark wrote:

> I think the idea of moderating the comments is inherently flawed. You can
> either have the deliberate, planned documentation without the comments, or you
> can have the wild-west style comments system, but trying to have it both ways
> is impossible. It just leads to the current situation where the comments are
> moribund.

What do you mean, moribund? What happens is that at each release Tom
gets the comments and integrate whatever of value into the main text
body. The rest are deleted.

That's the way it should be IMHO.

--
Alvaro Herrera (<alvherre[@]dcc.uchile.cl>)
"I dream about dreams about dreams", sang the nightingale
under the pale moon (Sandman)

---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 9: the planner will ignore your desire to choose an index scan if your
joining column's datatypes do not match

>The comments in the PHP docs, while they contain a lot of garbage also contain
>a lot of helpful tips and warnings. There's hardly any in the Postgres docs.
>
>
If it were I, we would start a wiki that was linked from the docs but
not have the docs
themselves have the comments.

>
>I think the idea of moderating the comments is inherently flawed.
>
If more people were intelligent and reasonable human beings you would be
correct.
I have seen the comments we get and a lot are complete garbage.

> You can
>either have the deliberate, planned documentation without the comments, or you
>can have the wild-west style comments system, but trying to have it both ways
>is impossible. It just leads to the current situation where the comments are
>moribund.
>
>
See my comment about a wiki

Also shouldn't this all be on pgsql-www?

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake




---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 5: Have you checked our extensive FAQ?

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/faq

Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@dcc.uchile.cl> writes:

> On Thu, Apr 14, 2005 at 01:39:11PM -0400, Greg Stark wrote:
>
> > I think the idea of moderating the comments is inherently flawed. You can
> > either have the deliberate, planned documentation without the comments, or you
> > can have the wild-west style comments system, but trying to have it both ways
> > is impossible. It just leads to the current situation where the comments are
> > moribund.
>
> What do you mean, moribund? What happens is that at each release Tom
> gets the comments and integrate whatever of value into the main text
> body. The rest are deleted.

So there's no comments saying "here's a useful function written using this
function" or "watch out for this common bug" or "if what you want to do is
this you might want to check out this other function" or any of the thousands
of similar comments in the PHP docs.

Instead you get one good example that's worthy of being included in the
documentation and nothing else.

There's also a problem that people are less likely to put comments in if they
don't see any existing comments.

--
greg


---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 2: you can get off all lists at once with the unregister command
(send "unregister YourEmailAddressHere" to majordomo@postgresql.org)

On Thu, Apr 14, 2005 at 03:01:10PM -0400, Greg Stark wrote:
> Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@dcc.uchile.cl> writes:
>
> > On Thu, Apr 14, 2005 at 01:39:11PM -0400, Greg Stark wrote:
> >
> > > I think the idea of moderating the comments is inherently flawed. You can
> > > either have the deliberate, planned documentation without the comments, or you
> > > can have the wild-west style comments system, but trying to have it both ways
> > > is impossible. It just leads to the current situation where the comments are
> > > moribund.
> >
> > What do you mean, moribund? What happens is that at each release Tom
> > gets the comments and integrate whatever of value into the main text
> > body. The rest are deleted.
>
> So there's no comments saying "here's a useful function written using this
> function" or "watch out for this common bug" or "if what you want to do is
> this you might want to check out this other function" or any of the thousands
> of similar comments in the PHP docs.

You are right, there aren't. But to me that's not a bad thing. I'd
find PHP's manual much better if the main text body really covered the
subject instead of only showing a couple of examples, and leaving part
of the matter to the comments (Even to "editor's notes" in the
comments!)

> Instead you get one good example that's worthy of being included in the
> documentation and nothing else.
>
> There's also a problem that people are less likely to put comments in if they
> don't see any existing comments.

I have agree with you on this last assertion.

--
Alvaro Herrera (<alvherre[@]dcc.uchile.cl>)
"Postgres is bloatware by design: it was built to house
PhD theses." (Joey Hellerstein, SIGMOD annual conference 2002)

---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 6: Have you searched our list archives?

http://archives.postgresql.org

Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@dcc.uchile.cl> writes:

> > So there's no comments saying "here's a useful function written using this
> > function" or "watch out for this common bug" or "if what you want to do is
> > this you might want to check out this other function" or any of the thousands
> > of similar comments in the PHP docs.
>
> You are right, there aren't. But to me that's not a bad thing. I'd
> find PHP's manual much better if the main text body really covered the
> subject instead of only showing a couple of examples, and leaving part
> of the matter to the comments (Even to "editor's notes" in the
> comments!)

I think this is a false dichotomy. Nobody's arguing that we should let the
main body of the documentation rot in favour of the comments. There's no
reason we can't have more comments and still have nicer authoritative
documentation than the PHP folks

I really see the comments serving a separate purpose from the main body. The
main body should be the manual -- an authoritative reference. The comments
should be more like this mailing list only organized.

How many times have you seen a question on pgsql-general and thought "gee that
would be answered if only the poster searched the archives"? Well the comments
on PHP serve basically as an organized repository of such previous discuss.
Instead of being in a single archive to search through they're attached
directly to the relevant piece of the documentation.

Certainly comments that amount to bug reports about the documentation can be
addressed by fixing the documentation (and the comment can then be removed).
Likewise comments that suggest additions can be moved into the main body of
the documentation.

--
greg


---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
TIP 7: don't forget to increase your free space map settings