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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>

	<note>
	  <para>The use of British English may be accepted in the case
	    of a contributed article, however the spelling must be
	    consistent within the whole document.  The other documents
	    such as books, web site, manual pages, etc. will have to
	    use American English.</para>
	</note>
      </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 id="writing-style-guide">
    <title>Style Guide</title>

    <para>To keep the source for the documentation 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, <sgmltag>para</sgmltag>,
	<emphasis>not</emphasis> <sgmltag>PARA</sgmltag>.</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>Acronyms</title>

      <para>Acronyms should generally be spelled out the first time
	they appear in a document, as in: <quote>Network Time Protocol
	(<acronym role="Network Time Protocol">NTP</acronym>)</quote>.
	After the acronym has been defined, you should generally use
	the acronym only (not the whole term, unless it makes more
	sense contextually to use the whole term).  Usually, acronyms
	are defined only one per document.  But if you prefer, you can
	also define them the first time they appear in each
	chapter.</para>

      <para>The first three uses of an acronym should be enclosed in
	<sgmltag>acronym</sgmltag> tags, with a
	<literal>role</literal> attribute with the full term defined.
	This allows a link to the glossary to be created, and for
	mouseovers to be rendered with the fully expanded term.</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>Opening tags increase the indentation level by 2 spaces.
	Closing tags decrease the indentation level by 2 spaces.
	Blocks of 8 spaces at the start of a line should be replaced
	with a tab.  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>

      ...
    </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 <application>Emacs</application> local variables at
	the bottom of each file should enforce these styles.</para>

      <para><application>Vim</application> users might want to
	configure their editor with:</para>

      <programlisting>augroup sgmledit
  autocmd FileType sgml set formatoptions=cq2l " Special formatting options
  autocmd FileType sgml set textwidth=70       " Wrap lines at 70 columns
  autocmd FileType sgml set shiftwidth=2       " Automatically indent
  autocmd FileType sgml set softtabstop=2      " Tab key indents 2 spaces
  autocmd FileType sgml set tabstop=8          " Replace 8 spaces with a tab
  autocmd FileType sgml set autoindent         " Automatic indentation
augroup END</programlisting>

    </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 lang='en'>
  <articleinfo>
    <title>NIS</title>

    <pubdate>October 1999</pubdate>

    <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 documentation
	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>

    <sect2>
      <title>Non-Breaking Space</title>

      <para>Avoid line breaks in places where they look ugly or make
	it difficult to follow a sentence.  Line breaks depend on the
	width of the chosen output medium.  In particular, viewing the
	HTML documentation with a text browser can lead to badly
	formatted paragraphs like the next one:</para>

      <literallayout class="monospaced">Data capacity ranges from 40 MB to 15
GB.  Hardware compression &hellip;</literallayout>

      <para>The general entity <literal>&amp;nbsp;</literal> prohibits
	line breaks between parts belonging together.  Use
	non-breaking spaces in the following places:</para>

      <itemizedlist>
	<listitem>
	  <para>between numbers and units:</para>
	  <programlisting><![CDATA[57600&nbsp;bps]]></programlisting>
	</listitem>

	<listitem>
	  <para>between program names and version numbers:</para>
	  <programlisting><![CDATA[FreeBSD&nbsp;4.7]]></programlisting>
	</listitem>

	<listitem>
	  <para>between multiword names (use with caution when
	    applying this to more than 3-4 word names like
	    <quote>The FreeBSD Brazilian Portuguese Documentation
	      Project</quote>):</para>
	  <programlisting><![CDATA[Sun&nbsp;Microsystems]]></programlisting>
	</listitem>
      </itemizedlist>
    </sect2>
  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="writing-style-word-list">
    <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>CD-ROM</para>
      </listitem>

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

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

      <listitem>
	<para>IPsec</para>
      </listitem>

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

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

      <listitem>
	<para>Soft Updates</para>
      </listitem>

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

      <listitem>
	<para>disk label</para>
      </listitem>

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

      <listitem>
	<para>file system</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>manual page</para>
      </listitem>

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

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

      <listitem>
	<para>null-modem</para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
	<para>web server</para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
  </sect1>
</chapter>