Chapter 2 : Typing Conventions

To help you understand better what is being explained, this document uses different fonts for topics with different interpretations. Some fonts are used for different kinds of objects; either the context will tell you which type of object is being referred to, or the exact distinction is not significant.

Snippets and the like

Note that the size of the font is automatically scaled to best fit the page width in the following environments. Most of the examples in this section use programs invoked from a command line, that is to say a terminal where you type commands. Refer to the corresponding chapter for more information on how to get a terminal.

An example of a snippet

# Snippets are presented like this.
# A snippet is an interaction in a
#   terminal between the user and
#   the computer.
# Lines beginning with a "sharp"
#    sign like this one are comments.
# Lines beginning with a "dollar" sign
#    ($) are commands you should type,
#    either as yourself or as root
#    (read the context to know that).
# Lines ending with a "backslash" (\)
#    are lines that continue on the
#    next line. Some programs support
#    this syntax.
# Other lines are the computer messages
$ file /dev/null
/dev/null: character special (1/3)
$ echo Hello \
  World
Hello World
$ echo Hello World
Hello World

An example of a literal excerpt

# Literal portions of configuration files
#   are displayed like this. Often, lines
#   beginning with a "sharp" (#) sign are
#   comments.
# assign a value to the FOO variable
FOO="My value"

An example of the syntax of a command

command <non literal argument> [optional argument ...]

It is very important to understand how to interpret the special signs in syntaxes.

The "greater than" and "less than" signs denote an argument not to be copied verbatim, but to interpret before you do so. For example, <filename> refers to the actual name of the file. If this name is foo.txt, you should type foo.txt, and not <foo.txt> or <filename>.

The square brackets denote optional arguments, which you may or may not include in the command.

The continuation points mean that an arbitrary number of items can be included there.

The syntax used in these pages is representative of syntax you will see in the synopsis of the system's manual pages.

An example of user input

Material you should type literally is displayed like this.

An example of computer output

Messages the computer spits are displayed like this.

Special fonts

This manual uses a number of different fonts (which can sometimes be combined) to help you distinguish the semantics or nature of the words used. They will appear in the following manner:

• Acronyms are typeset in the following font: ABC.
• Acronym signification is typeset in this font: A Beautiful Command. Most acronyms are defined in the glossary.
• This font is used to display program names. This is not the literal string to type to invoke the program, it is rather the "official" name of the program. Most of the time, the corresponding command name changes by some blanks or the case of some characters.
• This font is used to tell you that the corresponding word is an entry in the glossary.
• This font is used for menu entries in programs.
• This font is used for icon names.
• This font is used for tab names.
• This font is used for text fields.
• This font is used for button names.
• This font is used for people's first names.
• This font is used for people's last names.
• when a comment is a wink to the reader or a joke, we use the "smiley" symbol: :)
• when we wish to show a shortcut for a menu, we emphasize the letter for the shortcurt like this: Letter.
• This font is used to insist on a special part of a sentence.
• This font is used to emphasize a special part of a sentence.
• This font is used for Latin phrases.
• This font is used for product names.
• This font is used to display company names.
• This font is used in the glossary to send you to a related definition.
• This font is used to show commands you should type as is in a terminal.
• 'This font' is used to show variable names.
• This font is used to display filenames.
• Syntaxes are displayed as follows: command <argument>. See above to know how to read the contents of a syntax.
• This font is used to display a literal message, or something you should type literally.
• This font is used to display the name of a machine.
• This font is used to induce the corresponding item is a technical term.
• This font is used to display options.
• URLs are displayed like this: http://machine/path/.
• e-mail adressed are displayed like this: user@domain.xyz.
• newsgroup names are displayed like this: comp.os.linux.
• things to type on your keybord, or long key names are displayed like this: Escape.
• single keys to type are: 'a'.
• login names are: user.
• manual pages are written like this: command(section).

Miscellaneous

• Quoted material is displayed "like this".

Note: remarks to take into account are presented this way.

Warning: important remarks are displayed like this.

Tools used in the making of this manual

This manual was typeset with LaTeX. Perl and GNU Make were used to manage the set of files involved. Pictures have been shot with xwd and converted with convert (from the ImageMagick package). PostScript files were produced with dvips. All of these pieces of software are available on your Linux-Mandrake distribution, and all are free software.