Re: Mac Documentation: Venting

[Deborah Hemstreet <dvora -at- tech-challenged -dot- com>]

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the instructions in the Apple 
Style Guide (which I have to work with). Typos are in the samples I sent 
to you all... I was frustrated and didn't take the time to proof - sorry 
about that.

Here is the text from the Apple Style Guide... I personally don't like 
it... but... <sigh>

pathname One word. Note the differing treatments of these similar terms:
device name, filename, host name, user name, volume name
pathnames Follow these guidelines to specify the path to a location in 
the file system:
Absolute path: An absolute path describes the location of an item 
starting at the top
level, or root, of the user's hard disk. In user documentation, describe 
such paths in
plain English.
Open the Preview application, located in the Applications folder at the top
level of the hard disk.
Fonts for all users are stored in the Fonts folder in the Library folder 
at the
top level of the hard disk.
For more technical audiences (for example, users who are accustomed to the
pathname conventions used in operating systems such as Mac OS X and 
UNIX), you
can use slashes (including a leading slash) to indicate an absolute path.
Fonts for all users are stored in /Library/Fonts/.
You can also use slashes in user documentation if the path goes more 
than two
folders deep from the top level of the hard disk.
Place the file in the /System/Library/Keychains/ folder.
Relative path: If there is no leading slash, the path is a relative 
path---that is, relative
to some location other than the root folder.
Make sure the file is in Library/Application Support.
Home folder: In user documentation, use your to indicate that the item being
described is in the user's home folder. Use plain English (no slashes) 
to describe
folders that are just one or two levels deep.
Your files are saved in your Documents folder.
Your fonts are located in the Fonts folder in your Library folder.
If the folders go more than two levels deep, you can use slashes to 
avoid awkward
construction and wordiness. (Don't use a leading slash, because that 
would indicate
that the starting point is at the top level of the startup disk, not the 
user's
home folder.)
Copy the file to Library/Application Support/Address Book/ in your
home folder.
For more technical audiences, you can use a tilde (~) to specify a path 
within the
user's home folder.
The files are saved in ~/Documents.
Copy the file to ~/Library/Application Support/Address Book.
You can also use an absolute path with the word username in italics.
Each user's files are saved in /Users/username/Documents
Terminating slash: A terminating slash indicates that the final element 
of the path is a
folder rather than a file. You can choose whether or not to use a 
terminating slash,
but be consistent within a document.
You can find the files you've downloaded in ~/Library/Mail Downloads/.
 Code font: In developer documentation, pathnames are in code font.
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