Documentation Conventions

These conventions should be obvious, but we'll include them here for the pedantic.

Bold

Used to mark new concepts, WARNINGS, and keywords in a language.

italics

Used for emphasis in text, and occasionally for quotes or introductions at the beginning of a section. Also used to indicate commands for the user to type when showing screen interaction (see below).

Used to mark meta-variables in the text, especially in representations of the command line. For example,

ls -l

where would ``stand for'' a filename, such as /bin/cp.

Typewriter

Used to represent screen interaction, as in

$ ls --l /bin/cp
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel 12104 Sep 25 15:53 /bin/cp

Also used for code examples, whether it is C code, a shell script, or something else, and to display general files, such as configuration files. When necessary for clarity's sake, these examples or figures will be enclosed in thin boxes.

Represents a key to press. You will often see it in this form:

Press to continue.

A diamond in the margin, like a black diamond on a ski hill, marks ``danger'' or ``caution.'' Read paragraphs marked this way carefully.