[postgis-devel] Issue 35 in postgis: Comments on Postgis Functions

[Dane Springmeyer]

Regina and Paul,

I agree that a python script dependency for this step isn't ideal, and  
I'm in no way committed to the idea. It was simply an easy way for me  
to start working on the task, and I was not anticipating its  
consideration as a dependency.

I propose we close this issue 35 as invalid and cook up another one  
based on Regina's sweet plan. How does that sound?

More comments below...


On Jul 6, 2008, at 1:57 AM, Obe, Regina wrote:

> Paul,
> You must have been reading my mind when you selectively picked this  
> one and the proj one to not comment about.
>
> Regarding this I have been looking at Dane's submission and as Paul  
> mentioned, off list, its not good to add any more dependencies than  
> we need to.  This would require adding Python and Python's pgsql  
> library to use his source.

Yes, it requires Python and the Psycopg2 driver as well as an existing  
db to match function names against (due to variable argument syntax).

>
> My main gripe with it is that it requires a postgis_template db to  
> be loaded to build the comments.  It seems the main reason for that  
> is to look up the arg signature in the procname which would seem to  
> be unnecessary if our argument list in the documents could be mapped  
> to the postgresql function signature.

Exactly. It could easily be modified to match against an xml file (or  
internal python data type) that stores the exact function names and  
arguments, but having the docs more closely match the actual function  
definitions would be ideal.

>
> In many cases they do or almost do.  But we have cases like
>
> ST_MakePolygon(linestring, [linestring[]])
>
> which if we changed to
>
> ST_MakePolygon(linestring geometry, linestrings geometry[])
> ST_MakePolygon(linestring)
>
> would work.
>
> the only issue I can think of are these functions with multi- 
> signatures
> ST_AddPoint(linestring, point, [<position>])
>
> I personally would prefer see it listed twice as
> ST_AddPoint(linestring geometry, point geometry)
>
> ST_AddPoint(linestring geometry, point geometry, position integer)
>
> since I'm not convinced non-programmers don't find that nomenclature  
> confusing.
>
> then I'm thinking we can generate the postgis_comments.sql.in from a  
> simple
>
> postgis_comments.xsl  file that parses the postgis.xml thus not  
> needing another dependency.
>
> Although I could very well be trivializing the simplicity of this.
>
> Does anyone have issues with me changing the doc accordingly.
>

This sounds excellent. I'd be happy to help with this renaming if it  
is needed.


Cheers,

Dane




> Thanks,
> Regina
>
>
>
> From: postgis-devel-bounces at postgis.refractions.net on behalf of codesite-noreply at google.com
> Sent: Thu 7/3/2008 5:47 PM
> To: postgis-devel at postgis.refractions.net
> Subject: [postgis-devel] Issue 35 in postgis: Comments on Postgis  
> Functions
>
> Issue 35: Comments on Postgis Functions
> http://code.google.com/p/postgis/issues/detail?id=35
>
> Comment #2 by pwramsey3:
> (No comment was entered for this change.)
>
>
> Issue attribute updates:
>         Labels: -Type-Defect Type-Enhancement
>
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