<application> vs <command>

Bruce Momjian <pgman@candle.pha.pa.us> writes:

Can someone clarify when we should use <command> and when we should use
<application>?

More generally, what are the standard set of markup tags that should be
used? I know that I tend to overuse <literal>foo</> because I'm not
clear on the alternatives like <type>, <envar>, <option>, yadda yadda.
It'd help if there were a list somewhere.

regards, tom lane

Bruce Momjian writes:

Can someone clarify when we should use <command> and when we should use
<application>? I see postmaster used with application, but psql and
createdb used with command. Is this correct?

From "DocBook: The Definitive Guide":

| Command -- The name of an executable program or other software command
|
| This element holds the name of an executable program or the text of a
| command that a user enters to execute a program.

| Application -- The name of a software program
|
| The appelation "application" is usually reserved for larger software
| packages--WordPerfect, for example, but not grep. In some domains,
| Application may also apply to a piece of hardware.

One could think of psql as a separate "application", but postmaster is
certainly a command only.

I'm not sure why, given the definition, <command> is put out in bold.
Monospaced would make more sense to me. <application> could be a remote
candidate for bold.

Actually, postmaster seems bigger to me that psql. Are the outputs for
the two tags output differently? If so, we better use them
consistently.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026

Bruce Momjian writes:

Can someone clarify when we should use <command> and when we should use
<application>? I see postmaster used with application, but psql and
createdb used with command. Is this correct?

From "DocBook: The Definitive Guide":

| Command -- The name of an executable program or other software command
|
| This element holds the name of an executable program or the text of a
| command that a user enters to execute a program.

| Application -- The name of a software program
|
| The appelation "application" is usually reserved for larger software
| packages--WordPerfect, for example, but not grep. In some domains,
| Application may also apply to a piece of hardware.

One could think of psql as a separate "application", but postmaster is
certainly a command only.

I'm not sure why, given the definition, <command> is put out in bold.
Monospaced would make more sense to me. <application> could be a remote
candidate for bold.

--
Peter Eisentraut peter_e@gmx.net

Tom Lane writes:

More generally, what are the standard set of markup tags that should be
used? I know that I tend to overuse <literal>foo</> because I'm not
clear on the alternatives like <type>, <envar>, <option>, yadda yadda.
It'd help if there were a list somewhere.

At docbook.org you can download (read online, buy, ...) "DocBook: The
Definitive Guide", which contains introductions to SGML, XML, DocBook,
stylesheets, plus a complete reference of all elements, what they're for
and what can go where. I use it nearly every day.

As for what tags to use, it's difficult to keep track of the over a
hundred elements that DocBook has, but "when in doubt, use <literal>"
seems like a reasonable thing to do and it seems to fit the idea of the
element.

One day we might want to add some tags that fit our domain better, such as
<sqlcode> or <databaseobject>.

--
Peter Eisentraut peter_e@gmx.net

Bruce Momjian writes:

Can someone clarify when we should use <command> and when we should use
<application>? I see postmaster used with application, but psql and
createdb used with command. Is this correct?

From "DocBook: The Definitive Guide":

| Command -- The name of an executable program or other software command
|
| This element holds the name of an executable program or the text of a
| command that a user enters to execute a program.

| Application -- The name of a software program
|
| The appelation "application" is usually reserved for larger software
| packages--WordPerfect, for example, but not grep. In some domains,
| Application may also apply to a piece of hardware.

One could think of psql as a separate "application", but postmaster is
certainly a command only.

I'm not sure why, given the definition, <command> is put out in bold.
Monospaced would make more sense to me. <application> could be a remote
candidate for bold.

I see both <command> and <application> SGML tags is used for the
following items in our current CVS:

createdb
cvs checkout
ecpg
gcc
gzip
initdb
pg_dumpall
pgtclsh
postmaster
ps
psql
sed
ssh
strace
sysctl
tcsh

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026

OK, Peter, can I clean these up? Seems like a quiet time to do that.
Are applications things you interact with, like psql, while commands are
things like grep and createdb?

In reading the definition below, I thought PostgreSQL was an
application, while psql and postmaster were both commands. You type
psql and postmaster, but not PostgreSQL. That would fit with the
WordPerfect comment.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bruce Momjian writes:

Can someone clarify when we should use <command> and when we should use
<application>? I see postmaster used with application, but psql and
createdb used with command. Is this correct?

From "DocBook: The Definitive Guide":

| Command -- The name of an executable program or other software command
|
| This element holds the name of an executable program or the text of a
| command that a user enters to execute a program.

| Application -- The name of a software program
|
| The appelation "application" is usually reserved for larger software
| packages--WordPerfect, for example, but not grep. In some domains,
| Application may also apply to a piece of hardware.

One could think of psql as a separate "application", but postmaster is
certainly a command only.

I'm not sure why, given the definition, <command> is put out in bold.
Monospaced would make more sense to me. <application> could be a remote
candidate for bold.

--
Peter Eisentraut peter_e@gmx.net

-- 
  Bruce Momjian                        |  http://candle.pha.pa.us
  pgman@candle.pha.pa.us               |  (610) 853-3000
  +  If your life is a hard drive,     |  830 Blythe Avenue
  +  Christ can be your backup.        |  Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania 19026