B.3 Conventions: Fonts and symbols

Bold

Bold characters indicate text in a window, other than the window title. Such text includes menus, menu options, buttons, radio box options, or explanatory labels. For example:

• From the File menu, choose Open.

• Click the Cancel button.

• In the Enter name entry box, type your name.

Italic

Italic characters indicate a placeholder for some actual text to be provided by the user or system. For example:

• Write the command as follows:

  copy source-file target-file

• The following message appears:

  A file was not found. (file = file-name)

Italic characters are also used for emphasis. For example:

• Do not delete the configuration file.

Monospace

Monospace characters indicate text that the user enters without change, or text (such as messages) output by the system. For example:

• At the prompt, enter dir.

• Use the send command to send mail.

• The following message is displayed:

  The password is incorrect.

underline

The underline indicates the default value among two or more values enclosed in selection symbols.

|

A vertical bar separates multiple items, and has the meaning of OR. For example:

A|B|C means A, or B, or C.

{ }

Curly brackets indicate that only one of the enclosed items is to be selected. For example:

{A|B|C} means only one of A, or B, or C.

[ ]

Square brackets indicate that the enclosed item or items are optional. A vertical bar is used to delimit multiple items. For example:

Examples:

[A] means that you can specify A or nothing.

[B|C] means that you can specify B, or C, or nothing.

< >

Single angle brackets enclose the syntax element that must be used to specify an item.

+

The plus sign indicates that the immediately preceding item can be specified multiple times. It is also used to indicate that the items before and after it are specified together.

Examples:

{A|B}+

Indicates that A or B can be specified multiple times in any order.

CR+LF

Indicates that the carriage return character (CR) and the linefeed character (LF) are specified together.

*

The asterisk indicates that the immediately preceding item can be omitted or that it can be specified one or more times.

Example:

{A|B}*

Indicates that A or B can be specified one or more times in any order or that A and B can both be omitted.

~

A swung dash indicates that the syntax element enclosed by the single angle brackets (< >), double angle brackets (<< >>), or double parentheses ((( ))) that follow must be used to specify the item that precedes the swung dash.

<< >>

Double angle brackets enclose the default value for an item.

(( ))

Double parentheses enclose the permissible range of values that can be specified.

...

An ellipsis indicates that the immediately preceding item can be repeated as many times as necessary. For example:

A, B, B, ... means that, after you specify A, B, you can specify B as many times as necessary.

Denotes a single-byte space.

₀: Denotes zero or more spaces (spaces can be omitted).

₁: Denotes one or more spaces (at least one space is required).

<unsigned integer>

<numeric characters> +