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<chapter id="writing-style">
  <title>Writing style</title>
  
  <para>In order to promote consistency between the myriad authors of the
    FreeBSD documentation, some guidelines have been drawn up for authors to
    follow.</para>
  
  <variablelist>
    <varlistentry>
      <term>Use American English spelling</term>

      <listitem>
	<para>There are several variants of English, with different spellings
	  for the same word.  Where spellings differ, use the American English
	  variant. <quote>color</quote>, not <quote>colour</quote>,
	  <quote>rationalize</quote>, not <quote>rationalise</quote>, and so
	  on.</para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>

    <varlistentry>
      <term>Do not use contractions</term>
      
      <listitem>
	<para>Do not use contractions.  Always spell the phrase out in full.
	  <quote>Don't use contractions</quote> would be wrong.</para>

	<para>Avoiding contractions makes for a more formal tone, is more
	  precise, and is slightly easier for translators.</para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    
    <varlistentry>
      <term>Use the serial comma</term>
      
      <listitem>
	<para>In a list of items within a paragraph, separate each item from
	  the others with a comma.  Separate the last item from the others with
	  a comma and the word <quote>and</quote>.</para>

	<para>For example, look at the following:</para>
	
	<blockquote>
	  <para>This is a list of one, two and three items.</para>
	</blockquote>
	
	<para>Is this a list of three items, <quote>one</quote>,
	  <quote>two</quote>, and <quote>three</quote>, or a list of two items,
	  <quote>one</quote> and <quote>two and three</quote>?</para>
	
	<para>It is better to be explicit and include a serial comma:</para>
	
	<blockquote>
	  <para>This is a list of one, two, and three items.</para>
	</blockquote>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    
    <varlistentry>
      <term>Avoid redundant phrases</term>
      
      <listitem>
	<para>Try not to use redundant phrases.  In particular, <quote>the
	  command</quote>, <quote>the file</quote>, and <quote>man
	  command</quote> are probably redundant.</para>

	<para>These two examples show this for commands.  The second example
	  is preferred.</para>
	
	<informalexample>
	  <para>Use the command <command>cvsup</command> to update your
	    sources</para>
	</informalexample>
      
	<informalexample>
	  <para>Use <command>cvsup</command> to update your sources</para>
	</informalexample>
	
	<para>These two examples show this for filenames.  The second example
	  is preferred.</para>
	
	<informalexample>
	  <para>&hellip; in the filename
	    <filename>/etc/rc.local</filename>&hellip;</para>
	</informalexample>
	
	<informalexample>
	  <para>&hellip; in
	    <filename>/etc/rc.local</filename>&hellip;</para>
	</informalexample>
	
	<para>These two examples show this for manual references.  The second
	  example is preferred (the second example uses
	  <sgmltag>citerefentry</sgmltag>).</para>
	
	<informalexample>
	  <para>See <command>man csh</command> for more
	    information.</para>
	</informalexample>
	
	<informalexample>
	  <para>See &man.csh.1;</para>
	</informalexample>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
      <term>Two spaces at the end of sentences</term>

      <listitem>
	<para>Always use two spaces at the end of sentences, as this
	  improves readability, and eases use of tools such as
	  <application>emacs</application>.</para>

	<para>While it may be argued that a capital letter following
	  a period denotes a new sentence, this is not the case, especially
	  in name usage.  <quote>Jordan K. Hubbard</quote> is a good
	  example; it has a capital <literal>H</literal> following a
	  period and a space, and there certainly is not a new sentence
	  there.</para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
  </variablelist>

  <para>For more information about writing style, see <ulink
      url="http://www.bartleby.com/141/">Elements of
      Style</ulink>, by William Strunk.</para>

  <sect1>
    <title>Style guide</title>

    <para>To keep the source for the Handbook consistent when many different
      people are editing it, please follow these style conventions.</para>

    <sect2>
      <title>Letter case</title>

      <para>Tags are entered in lower case, <literal>&lt;para&gt;</literal>,
	<emphasis>not</emphasis> <literal>&lt;PARA&gt;</literal>.</para>

      <para>Text that appears in SGML contexts is generally written in upper
	case, <literal>&lt!ENTITY&hellip;&gt;</literal>, and
	<literal>&lt;!DOCTYPE&hellip;&gt;</literal>, <emphasis>not</emphasis>
	<literal>&lt;!entity&hellip;&gt;</literal> and
	<literal>&lt;!doctype&hellip;&gt;</literal>.</para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2>
      <title>Indentation</title>

      <para>Each file starts with indentation set at column 0,
	<emphasis>regardless</emphasis> of the indentation level of the file
	which might contain this one.</para>

      <para>Every start tag increases the indentation level by 2 spaces, and
	every end tag decreases the indentation level by 2 spaces.  Replace
	as many leading spaces with tabs as appropriate.  Do not use
	spaces in front of tabs, and do not add extraneous whitespace at the
	end of a line.  Content
	within elements should be indented by two spaces if the content runs
	over more than one line.</para>

      <para>For example, the source for this section looks something
	like:</para>

      <programlisting><![ CDATA [+--- This is column 0
V
<chapter>
  <title>...</title>

  <sect1>
    <title>...</title>

    <sect2>
      <title>Indentation</title>

      <para>Each file starts with indentation set at column 0,
        <emphasis>regardless</emphasis> of the indentation level of the file
        which might contain this one.</para>

      <para>Every start tag increases the indentation level by 2 spaces, and
        every end tag decreases the indentation level by 2 spaces.  Content
        within elements should be indented by two spaces if the content runs
        over more than one line.</para>

      ...	
    </sect2>
  </sect1>
</chapter>]]></programlisting>

      <para>If you use <application>Emacs</application> or
	<application>Xemacs</application> to edit the files then
	<literal>sgml-mode</literal> should be loaded automatically, and the
	Emacs local variables at the bottom of each file should enforce these
	styles.</para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2>
      <title>Tag style</title>

      <sect3>
	<title>Tag spacing</title>
	
	<para>Tags that start at the same indent as a previous tag
	  should be separated by a blank line, and those that are not
	  at the same indent as a previous tag should not:</para>

	<informalexample>
	  <programlisting><![ CDATA [<article>
  <articleinfo>
    <title>NIS</title>

    <pubdate>October 1999</pubdata>

    <abstract>
      <para>...
	...
	...</para>
    </abstract>
  </articleinfo>

  <sect1>
    <title>...</title>

    <para>...</para>
  </sect1>

  <sect1>
    <title>...</title>

    <para>...</para>
  </sect1>
</article>]]></programlisting>
	</informalexample>
      </sect3>

      <sect3>
	<title>Separating tags</title>

	<para>Tags like <sgmltag>itemizedlist</sgmltag> which will
	  always have further tags inside them, and in fact do not take
	  character data themselves, are always on a line by
	  themselves.</para>

	<para>Tags like <sgmltag>para</sgmltag> and
	  <sgmltag>term</sgmltag> do not need other tags to contain
	  normal character data, and their contents begin immediately
	  after the tag, <emphasis>on the same line</emphasis>.</para>

	<para>The same applies to when these two types of tags
	  close.</para>

	<para>This leads to an obvious problem when mixing these
	  tags.</para>

	<para>When a starting tag which cannot contain character data
	  directly follows a tag of the type that requires other tags
	  within it to use character data, they are on separate lines.
	  The second tag should be properly indented.</para>

	<para>When a tag which can contain character data closes
	  directly after a tag which cannot contain character data
	  closes, they co-exist on the same line.</para>
      </sect3>
    </sect2>

    <sect2>
      <title>White space changes</title>

      <para>When committing changes, <emphasis>do not commit changes to the
	  content at the same time as changes to the
	  formatting</emphasis>.</para>
      
      <para>This is so that the teams that convert the Handbook to other
	languages can quickly see what content has actually changed in your
	commit, without having to decide whether a line has changed because of
	the content, or just because it has been refilled.</para>

      <para>For example, if you have added two sentences to a paragraph, such
	that the line lengths on the paragraph now go over 80 columns, first
	commit your change with the too-long line lengths.  Then fix the line
	wrapping, and commit this second change.  In the commit message for
	the second change, be sure to indicate that this is a whitespace-only
	change, and that the translation team can ignore it.</para>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>

  <sect1>
    <title>Word list</title>

    <para>The following is a small list of words spelled the way they
      should be used in the FreeBSD Documentation Project.  If the
      word you are looking for is not in this list, then please
      consult the <ulink
      url="http://www.oreilly.com/oreilly/author/stylesheet.html">O'Reilly
      word list</ulink>.</para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
	<para>2.2.X</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>4.X-STABLE</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>DoS <emphasis>(Denial of Service)</emphasis> </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>FreeBSD Ports Collection</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>Internet</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>CDROM</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>MHz</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>ports collection</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>Unix</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>email</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>manual page(s)</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>mail server</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>name server</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>web server</para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

  </sect1>
</chapter>

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