Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Cc: Dmitriy Igrishin <dmitigr@gmail.com>, Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>,
	pgsql-docs <pgsql-docs@postgresql.org>
Subject: Re: "Backend server" term usage
From: Alvaro Herrera <alvherre@commandprompt.com>
To: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
In-reply-to: <201103111442.p2BEgwh02462@momjian.us>
References: <201103111442.p2BEgwh02462@momjian.us>
Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 12:00:09 -0300
Message-Id: <1299855507-sup-6440@alvh.no-ip.org>
User-Agent: Sup/git
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Excerpts from Bruce Momjian's message of vie mar 11 11:42:58 -0300 2011:
> Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> > Excerpts from Dmitriy Igrishin's message of dom feb 20 06:19:19 -0300 2011:
> > 
> > > Better, undoubtedly.
> > > Another alternative is just "server". Why? Well, for consistency, e.g. with
> > > http://www.postgresql.org/docs/9.0/static/errcodes-appendix.html
> > > Here you may see phrase "All messages emitted by the PostgreSQL server ..."
> > > and furthermore, there are some SQL standard's "SQLSTATE" code
> > > which name includes "server" rather than "backend":
> > > SQLSERVER REJECTED ESTABLISHMENT OF SQLCONNECTION
> > > But anyway, phrase "backend server" is incorrect.
> > 
> > Maybe some cleanup would be good, but in that case please provide a
> > specific patch.  The replacement suggested in the email that started
> > this thread seems OK, but wholesale replacement of the phrase "backend
> > server" with something else is likely to introduce as many mistakes as
> > it would fix.  For example, the description of postgres' -T switch would
> > then be wrong.
> > 
> > I think using the protocol chapter as reference for terms to use is a
> > bad idea -- it's one of the most obscure chapters in the documentation.
> 
> OK, attached is my proposed patch;  it mostly changes "backend server"
> to "backend process".

Looks good to me, thanks for the effort.

This whole thread makes me think that we should consider having a
glossary of terms in the docs.

-- 
Álvaro Herrera <alvherre@commandprompt.com>
The PostgreSQL Company - Command Prompt, Inc.
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