RHSG and IBM disagree on pipe character

[daobrien]

https://stylepedia.net/style/#punc-names

The RHSG refers to | as the pipe character, but IBM uses "vertical bar".
If we're just referring to the character, which should we use?

I know it's common and expected to use "pipe" when talking about piping the output of a command or similar to another command, but what about just referring to the char?

[julian-cable]

I searched in RH product docs, and although both terms are used, "vertical bar" has more occurrences, especially when not directly related to the RHEL function.
There are other contexts where only "vertical bar" is appropriate, such as to refer to how tracked changes in a document might be shown.
IBM specifies "vertical bar".
I am leaning towards "vertical bar" for general use, because it is more widely applicable to refer to the character itself rather than the function that it (sometimes) performs.

[daobrien]

Not sure what you mean by "the RHEL function".

This probably falls under the same category "greater-than" vs "redirect", where ">" is the character but "redirect" is the function it performs in many cases.

Bear in mind, too, that | is sometimes used to indicate a logical OR, just as & is used for logical AND, and ! can mean NOT, etc.

I think overall we just need to explain when to use which.

[julian-cable]

@pagomez-cd will draft some guidance. From discussion, the preference is to use "pipe character" when referring to that function. Occasionally, "vertical bar" might be appropriate as an alternative if referring specifically to the keyboard key.