Re: Add PostgreSQL home page to --help output - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

On Fri, Feb 28, 2020 at 02:02:17PM +0100, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> On 2020-02-20 12:09, Daniel Gustafsson wrote:
> > > On 20 Feb 2020, at 10:53, Daniel Gustafsson <daniel@yesql.se> wrote:
> > > 
> > > > On 20 Feb 2020, at 10:15, Peter Eisentraut <peter.eisentraut@2ndquadrant.com> wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > On 2020-02-13 14:24, Greg Stark wrote:
> > > > > Sounds like a fine idea. But personally I would prefer it without the <> around the it, just a url on a line
byitself. I think it would be clearer, look cleaner, and be easier to select to copy/paste elsewhere.
 
> > > > 
> > > > I'm on the fence about this one, but I like the delimiters because it would also work consistently if we put a
URLinto running text where it might be immediately adjacent to other characters.  So I was actually going for easier to
copy/pastehere, but perhaps in other environments it's not easier?
 
> > > 
> > > For URLs completely on their own, not using <> makes sense.  Copy pasting <url>
> > > into the location bar of Safari makes it load the url, but Firefox and Chrome
> > > turn it into a search engine query (no idea about Windows browsers).
> > > 
> > > For URLs in running text it's not uncommon to have <> around the URL for the
> > > very reason you mention.  Looking at --help and manpages from random open
> > > source tools there seems to be roughly a 50/50 split on using <> or not.
> > 
> > RFC3986 discuss this in <https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986#appendix-C>, with
> > the content mostly carried over from RFC2396 appendix E.
> 
> I think we weren't going to get any more insights here, so I have committed
> it as is.

Some new feedback.  I find this output confusing since there is a colon
before the <>:

    Report bugs to <pgsql-bugs@lists.postgresql.org>.
    PostgreSQL home page: <https://www.postgresql.org/>

Does this look better (no colon)?

    Report bugs to <pgsql-bugs@lists.postgresql.org>.
    PostgreSQL home page <https://www.postgresql.org/>

or this (colon, no <>)?

    Report bugs to <pgsql-bugs@lists.postgresql.org>.
    PostgreSQL home page:  https://www.postgresql.org/

or maybe this?

    Report bugs:  pgsql-bugs@lists.postgresql.org
    PostgreSQL home page:  https://www.postgresql.org/

or this?

    Report bugs <pgsql-bugs@lists.postgresql.org>
    PostgreSQL home page <https://www.postgresql.org/>

I actually have never seen URLs in <>, only email addresses.  I think
using <> for URLs and emails is confusing because they usually have
different actions, unless we want to add mailto:

    Report bugs <mailto:pgsql-bugs@lists.postgresql.org>
    PostgreSQL home page <https://www.postgresql.org/>

or

    Report bugs mailto:pgsql-bugs@lists.postgresql.org
    PostgreSQL home page https://www.postgresql.org/

I kind of prefer the last one since the can both be pasted directly into
a browser.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        https://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             https://enterprisedb.com

+ As you are, so once was I.  As I am, so you will be. +
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