Re: Style Guide for UNIX?

[Laura Lemay <lemay -at- lauralemay -dot- com>]

FWIW I've done command-line UNIX documentation since the pleistocene,  
and this is the method that I use.  No commands in the step itself,  
but a full command in the example.  This method works because it
enables the the unix wizards to scan for the actual commands in  
monospace font and ignore your verbose instructions, but it spells  
out both the action and the command for those readers who aren't  
quite so unix wizardy.  win-win.

Laura


On Oct 17, 2008, at 8:57 AM, Chris Morton wrote:

> When I documented UNIX software installation at HP, I would have a  
> numbered
> step, with some prose, set in Arial. Immediately below and indented  
> a bit,
> I'd show the actual command in Courier New, some variant of Courier  
> being
> most often used to depict actual user input or code.
>
> So....
>
> 4) Change directory to /gimfratz/frabulator.
>
>          cd /gimfratz/frabulator
>
>> Chris
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 8:47 AM, Julie Stickler  
> <jstickler -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote
>
>> I checked out Read Me First on Amazon, and it doesn't have UNIX  
>> listed
>> in either the TOC or the Index, so I'm not sure that it would be much
>> help.
>>
>> Chris, thanks for the reminder that UNIX is case sensitive.  I knew
>> that, but now I have to go back to the doc that I'm editing and mark
>> where the writer capitalized commands incorrectly.
>>
>> Fred, Paul, thanks for the rewrite suggestions!  Very helpful!
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