Re: Good beginner doc-hacking task: clear-text vs. cleartext vs. clear text vs. plaintext etc..

It would be nice to get that cleaned up and consistent, but I don't intend to
spend time on it myself. However, I know from attending a session on
documentation at PGConf.EU that there are several potential contributors who
would like to work on the docs but don't know exactly where to start, so I
figured I'd raise it here as a good introductory project.
I would love to take this on - thank you for flagging it as a potential first doc-hacking task.
In the documentation, when we talk about secrets used for passwords
authentication and similar, we use a mix of "clear-text", "cleartext" and
"clear text"; in at least one place we also use "plaintext". There are several
cases where we use "plaintext password" correctly, but we also have the variant
"plain text" vs, "plain-text" vs. "plaintext" there as well.
Just to confirm my understanding:
1. We should use "cleartext" and "plaintext" throughout, not "clear-text", "clear text", "plain text" or "plain-text".
2. There is at least one case where "plaintext" is used incorrectly in place of "cleartext".

Regards,

--
Karen Jex

________________________________
From: Daniel Gustafsson <daniel(at)yesql(dot)se>
Sent: 06 November 2026 14:41
To: pgsql-docs(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org <pgsql-docs(at)lists(dot)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Good beginner doc-hacking task: clear-text vs. cleartext vs. clear text vs. plaintext etc..

While working on a docs patch I realized that we use a wide variety of
terminology for secrets that will not be encrypted, which is very different
from secrets which will be encrypted; the former is IMO cleartext and the
latter plaintext.

In the documentation, when we talk about secrets used for passwords
authentication and similar, we use a mix of "clear-text", "cleartext" and
"clear text"; in at least one place we also use "plaintext". There are several
cases where we use "plaintext password" correctly, but we also have the variant
"plain text" vs, "plain-text" vs. "plaintext" there as well.

It would be nice to get that cleaned up and consistent, but I don't intend to
spend time on it myself. However, I know from attending a session on
documentation at PGConf.EU that there are several potential contributors who
would like to work on the docs but don't know exactly where to start, so I
figured I'd raise it here as a good introductory project.

If someone does take a stab at it, I will of course spend the time to review
it.

--
Daniel Gustafsson