Re: [DOCS] "data" not "datums" - Mailing list pgsql-docs

From David G. Johnston
Subject Re: [DOCS] "data" not "datums"
Date
Msg-id CAKFQuwY8d1a95LMSrMdDei-E+Xts_bjsDyDfTaztzX+a+XaGow@mail.gmail.com
Whole thread Raw
In response to Re: [DOCS] "data" not "datums"  (Peter Eisentraut <peter.eisentraut@2ndquadrant.com>)
List pgsql-docs
On Mon, Aug 7, 2017 at 1:15 PM, Peter Eisentraut <peter.eisentraut@2ndquadrant.com> wrote:
On 8/1/17 04:22, mahsh.baheti@gmail.com wrote:
> The following documentation comment has been logged on the website:
>
> Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.4/static/datatype-json.html
> Description:
>
> In the section
> https://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.4/static/datatype-json.html
>
> Sub-section:
> 8.14.2. Designing JSON documents effectively
>
> Original text:
> &quot;but having a predictable structure makes it easier to write queries that
> usefully summarize a set of &quot;documents&quot; (datums) in a table.&quot;
>
> Suggested text:
> &quot;but having a predictable structure makes it easier to write queries that
> usefully summarize a set of &quot;documents&quot; (data) in a table.&quot;

"datum" means something specific in PostgreSQL, and several of those are
most usefully "datums".  "data" doesn't really convey the same meaning here.

Peter, ​While your point is accurate the fact is that this seems to be the only place in the user-facing documentation, aside from "hacker targeted" material, that the word "datum" in the PostgreSQL sense is used.  However, changing it to "data" doesn't do it for me either.  Reading the entire paragraph, including the first introduction of the term "JSON documents", leads me to think that the best solution here is to remove the double-quotes surrounding "documents" and remove the parenthetical entirely.  I'm not seeing how it adds or clarifies anything here - the reader has been told that an alias for "json value" is "document".  Introducing the concept of "datum" here is just going to prompt questions such as this.

David J.

pgsql-docs by date:

Previous
From: Peter Geoghegan
Date:
Subject: Re: [DOCS] "data" not "datums"
Next
From: Peter Eisentraut
Date:
Subject: Re: [DOCS] Use of term Master/Slave