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Typographic Conventions

The following typographic conventions are common in many kinds of documentation, help pages, and manual pages.

  • Text that appears in italics must be replaced by whatever it is that it represents (i.e., it represents a placeholder or variable)

  • Text that appears in bold (sometimes plain) must be typed exactly as it appears (i.e., it represents a literal).

  • Text that appears in square brackets (i.e., []) is optional.

  • Ellipsis (i.e., ...) after an item (e.g., argument, expression) indicates that it can be repeated any number of times.

You may also see some or all of the following.

  • The vertical bar (i.e., |) used to indicate an "inclusive or".

  • Curly braces (i.e., {}) used to indicate an "exclusive or".

Last modified: 2018-08-26 13:53 by David Bernstein (bd0b118)