Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Design by committee

Design by committee is usually a term of abuse, but sometimes it's perhaps not the worst alternative. At the opposite end of the spectrum, there is design by disconnected individuals. That is how you get
ALTER TABLE tbl OWNER TO something
but
ALTER TABLE tbl SET SCHEMA something
in PostgreSQL.

Maybe a committee faced with this inconsistency would arrive at the compromise

ALTER TABLE tbl [SET] {OWNER|SCHEMA} [TO] something
?