Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> writes:
> On Fri, Sep 24, 2010 at 11:55 AM, Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us> wrote:
>> So? �There are lots of surprising things in SQL. �And *of course* the
>> only complaints come from people who didn't know about it, not from
>> satisfied users.
> I guess that's true, but is this behavior specified in or required by
> any SQL standard? Are there other database products that also support
> this syntax? Or is this just our own invention?
It's a holdover from PostQUEL, I think, but it's still useful. I
observe that SQL:2008 has added a significantly-uglier-than-this feature
for computed columns, so there's certainly use cases out there.
> I think it's because it's counterintuitive.
From an object-oriented-programming standpoint it seems entirely
intuitive. Many OOP languages minimize the notational difference
between members and methods of a class.
regards, tom lane
