Usually I write about new features in 8.4, but this time I'd like to write about feature that will be actually missing in 8.4. And thank God, it will be missing.

On Mon, 09 Mar 2009 11:22:47 -0400 Greg Sabino Mullane wrote mail to pgsql-hackers list with his patch that removes -d switch from pg_dump.

Later there was some discussion (20 mails) that extended the patch to remove also -D.

And now, today, Tom Lane committed:

Remove the -d and -D options of pg_dump and pg_dumpall.  The functionality
is still available, but you must now write the long equivalent --inserts
or --column-inserts.  This change is made to eliminate confusion with the
use of -d to specify a database name in most other Postgres client programs.
Original patch by Greg Mullane, modified per subsequent discussion.

This is great news. One less way a new user of pg (or one that doesn't read –help pages) can do himself harm, one less thing that is purely illogical.