<command> vs <application>

[Paul W. Frields]

On Thu, 2005-09-08 at 13:27 -0700, Karsten Wade wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-09-08 at 15:57 -0400, Brad Smith wrote:
> > > <screen>
> > > <userinput><command>cd</command> <filename>foo</filename>
> > > <command>./bar</command> <option>-o baaz</option> 
> > > <command>cat</command> <filename>baaz</filename></userinput>
> > > <computeroutput>[contents of baaz]</computeroutput>
> > > </screen>
> > 
> > 
> > Another element missing from this, which it would be nice to adopt a
> > standard for for consistency's sake, is the input prompt. The current
> > GLS standard (as of last week) is:
> > 
> > <prompt>[student at stationX ~]$</prompt> 
> > 
> > unless a different user, host or cwd is specifically warranted. The
> > stationX has to do with the way systems are named in our classrooms
> > (station1, station2, etc), so it might not make a good FDP or Red
> > Hat-wide convention, but a standard of some sort would be good
> > nonetheless.
> 
> We've had a convention of not including the prompt at all.  This is
> different from other UNIX documentation.  However, I don't think anyone
> has complained.
> 
> My guess is, the prompt was dropped for clarity sake?  In RH docs, we
> use <prompt> only when specifically discussing the prompt, otherwise
> it's left out for visual clarity, I reckon.

I agree with this usage convention.  The prompt is distracting in a
procedural guide unless the guidance is actually about the prompt.  I
could understand using a single '$' or '#' to differentiate "normal
user" and "super user" commands, but *only* if (1) all the FDP docs do
the same thing, and (2) each doc has boilerplate in the front that
indicates what each means. Just my $0.02.

-- 
Paul W. Frields, RHCE                          http://paul.frields.org/
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
 Fedora Documentation Project: http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/docs/
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