GNU Info

Info Node: (texinfo)Indicating

(texinfo)Indicating


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Indicating Definitions, Commands, etc.
======================================

  Texinfo has commands for indicating just what kind of object a piece
of text refers to.  For example, metasyntactic variables are marked by
`@var', and code by `@code'.  Since the pieces of text are labelled by
commands that tell what kind of object they are, it is easy to change
the way the Texinfo formatters prepare such text.  (Texinfo is an
_intentional_ formatting language rather than a _typesetting_
formatting language.)

  For example, in a printed manual, code is usually illustrated in a
typewriter font; `@code' tells TeX to typeset this text in this font.
But it would be easy to change the way TeX highlights code to use
another font, and this change would not affect how keystroke examples
are highlighted.  If straight typesetting commands were used in the body
of the file and you wanted to make a change, you would need to check
every single occurrence to make sure that you were changing code and
not something else that should not be changed.

Useful Highlighting
Highlighting provides useful information.
code
Indicating program code.
kbd
Showing keyboard input.
key
Specifying keys.
samp
A literal sequence of characters.
verb
A verbatim sequence of characters.
var
Indicating metasyntactic variables.
env
Indicating environment variables.
file
Indicating file names.
command
Indicating command names.
option
Indicating option names.
dfn
Specifying definitions.
cite
Referring to books not in the Info system.
acronym
Indicating acronyms.
url
Indicating a World Wide Web reference.
email
Indicating an electronic mail address.

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