C.5 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.

|

In syntax explanations, a vertical bar separates multiple items, and has the meaning of OR. For example:

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

{ }

In syntax explanations, 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.

[ ]

In syntax explanations, square brackets indicate that the enclosed item or items are optional. For example:

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

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

...

In coding, an ellipsis (...) indicates that one or more lines of coding have been omitted.

In syntax explanations, 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.

x

Multiplication sign

/

Division sign

↑ ↑

The calculation result is rounded up to the next whole number.

Example:

The result of ↑ 34 / 3↑ is 12.

(tilde)

The item shown before this symbol must be specified in accordance with the conventions shown for angle brackets, double parentheses, and double angle brackets (below).

< >

(angle brackets)

Indicates the characters and lexical elements that can be specified.

<characters>

One or more Kanji characters, katakana characters, upper-case alphabetic characters, lower-case alphabetic characters, or numeric characters

<numeric>

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9

<alphabetic character>

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z, \, #, or @

<alphanumeric character>

Alphabetic or numeric character

<symbolic name>

No more than eight alphanumeric characters beginning with an alphabetic character

<unsigned integer>

One or more numeric characters

<hexadecimal character>

0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, or F

<file name>

A system-determined name assigned to a file

<path>

The directories contained in the path, with each name separated by a forward slash (/) or backslash (\). The path notation is OS-dependent.

(( ))

(double parentheses)

Indicates the range of specifiable values.

<< >>

(double angle brackets)

Indicates the default assumed by the system when a value is unspecified.

Example:

If you do not specify days-to-keep-form ~<numeric> ((0 to 365)) <<365>>, 365 is assumed as the number of days to keep the form.

MAX

Choose the largest of the calculation results.

Example:

The result of MAX (3 x 6, 4 + 7) is 18.