Re: The TODO List (Was: Re: Open 7.3 items) - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

It is an open issue.  It has to be resolved. When it is, I will remove
it.  I added a question mark to it but it needs to be tracked.  I keep
having to add and remove it because I have people telling me what to do.

It was Peter who told me to add it, and you and Thomas to remove it.  It
isn't me adding/removing on my own.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marc G. Fournier wrote:
> On Wed, 18 Sep 2002, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> 
> >
> > Re-added to open items:
> >
> >     Fix SIMILAR TO to be ANSI compliant or remove it (Peter, Tom)
> 
> Tke that @#$@$@@$@#$ thing out of there until its actually been fully
> discussed ... you are starting to remind me of Charlie Brown ... this, I
> think, was Thomas' whole point, in that things are added way too faster
> and easily without fully understanding all of the ramifications ... let a
> discussion cool down *before* you take things off, or add things to, the
> list ...
> 
> 
> 
> 
> >
> > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Tom Lane wrote:
> > > "Marc G. Fournier" <scrappy@hub.org> writes:
> > > > I'm in agreement with Thomas here ... unless a problem has been defined a
> > > > bit more specifically then 'it isn't posix compliant', it shouldn't be
> > > > considered an open item ... please remove?
> > >
> > > A quick review of SQL99 says that their notion of SIMILAR TO patterns
> > > is an unholy witches' brew: it does *both* common-or-garden regexp
> > > expressions and LIKE patterns.  Specifically, I see these
> > > metacharacters:
> > >
> > >     |        OR  (regexp-ish)
> > >
> > >     *        repeat 0 or more times  (regexp-ish)
> > >
> > >     +        repeat 1 or more times  (regexp-ish)
> > >
> > >     %        match any character sequence  (like LIKE)
> > >
> > >     _        match any one character  (like LIKE)
> > >
> > >     [...]        almost-but-not-quite-regexp-ish character class
> > >
> > >     (...)        grouping  (regexp-ish)
> > >
> > > plus a just-like-LIKE treatment of a selectable escape character.
> > >
> > > But the most important variation from common regex practice is that
> > > (if I'm reading the spec correctly) the pattern must match to the
> > > entire target string --- ie, it's effectively both left- and right-
> > > anchored.  This is like LIKE patterns but utterly unlike common regexp
> > > usage.
> > >
> > > I could live with the fact that our regexp patterns don't implement all
> > > of the spec-mandated metacharacters.  But I do not think we can ignore
> > > the difference in anchoring behavior.  This is not a subset of the spec
> > > behavior, it is just plain wrong.
> > >
> > > I vote with Peter: we fix this or we disable it before 7.3 release.
> > > It is not anywhere near spec compliant, and we will be doing no one
> > > a favor by releasing it in the current state.
> > >
> > >             regards, tom lane
> > >
> > > ---------------------------(end of broadcast)---------------------------
> > > TIP 4: Don't 'kill -9' the postmaster
> > >
> >
> > --
> >   Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
> >   pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 359-1001
> >   +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road
> >   +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square, Pennsylvania 19073
> >
> 
> 

--  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610)
359-1001+  If your life is a hard drive,     |  13 Roberts Road +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Newtown Square,
Pennsylvania19073