Last update Dec29/19W3C//Dtd html 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"> Master Style Guide: Using this book

Using this book

This section discusses how to use this book.

Purpose and audience

This book is the Collective Technologies Master Style Guide. It is intended for anyone writing any document for Collective Technologies, including technical documents for client or internal use, presentations, web sites, methodologies, contracts, and other documents.

Organization

This book is organized as follows.

Notational conventions

This section discusses the notational conventions used in this book.

Bold monospace

In command examples, text shown in bold monospace font identifies user input that must be typed exactly as shown.

Monospace

In paragraph text, monospace identifies:

Command names
Signal names
System calls
Variable names

In command examples, monospace identifies command output, including error messages.

In command syntax diagrams, text shown in monospace must be typed exactly as shown.

Italic

In paragraph text, italic identifies:

New and important terms
Titles of documents

In command syntax diagrams, italic identifies variables that must be supplied by the user.

Boldface

In paragraph text, boldface indicates emphasis.

KeyCap

Text in KeyCap font are used for exact keys to be pressed, such as Esc or Ctrl-m.

{}

In command syntax diagrams, text surrounded by curly brackets indicate a choice. The choices available are shown inside the curly brackets and separated by the pipe (|) sign.

The following command example indicates that you can enter either a or b:

command { a | b }

[ ]

In command syntax diagrams, square brackets indicate optional information.

The following command example indicates that the definition of the variable output_file is optional:

command input_file [output_file]

:

In command output, vertical ellipsis shows omission of one or more lines of text.

...

In command examples, horizontal ellipsis shows repetition of the preceding item or items.

The following command example indicates you can optionally specify more than one input_file on the command line:

command input_file [input_file...]

Notes, cautions, and warnings

The following formats are used for notes, cautions, and warnings.

A note highlights information of a supplemental nature.

A caution highlights procedures or information necessary to avoid damage to equipment, damage to software, loss of data, or invalid test results.

A warning highlights procedures or information necessary to avoid injury to personnel.

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