Off-topic:
Any suggestions on choosing a typographic style for command-line Unix
book?
For command line examples and console output, I use lyxcode with bold for
the text to be entered/typed by the user.
Within paragraphs, we use slanted text for mentions of Unix tools and path
(file or directory) names. We also use slanted text to refer to options in
menus too.
But sometimes within paragraghs we commands that could be run. I am
wondering if we should continue to use slanted text. My preference is to
use bold text for that.
Here is an example two paragraphs (notice that the "man 1 kill" command
which could be run is in bold):
Now let's see what type of work we can do from the Webmin interface.
Expand \textsl{System} and click on \textsl{Software Packages}, then the
\textsl{Package Tree} button. You should receive the graphical equivalent
of the \textsl{pkg\_info -a} command. Now click on one of your packages
to read its description and the date it was installed. Those who've been
around FreeBSD for a while may not be impressed, as this is the
equivalent of \textsl{pkg\_info -Dx}. Try clicking on the \textsl{List
Files} button. Ever install a port and wondered where it put everything
and what all it created on your FreeBSD system? Wonder no more, as you
now have a hyperlinked list of all the files that were installed with
that port, as well as their locations, size, and ownership.
Next try \textsl{Running Processes}. This is just a graphical output of
the \textsl{ps} command, but I love its layout. All running processes can
be sorted by PID, user, memory, and CPU. If you sort by PID, you'll
receive a tree-like structure, with every child process slightly to the
right of its parent process. Each process has a hyperlink to further
details about that process. If you need to send a signal to a process,
you can choose the type of signal from a drop-down menu. (Do a
\textbf{man 1 kill} to learn more about signals -- and never
\textsl{kill} a process if you don't know what that process does).
Also notice above I have the pkg_info commands in slanted text. Maybe they
should be in a bold. I am just want to be consistent and to be easy for
reading. I guess my goal should be that it is helpful to the reader
without the reader being distracted. Any opinions would be appreciated.
Jeremy C. Reed
p.s. I have read probably over a hundred Unix or related books and it
seems each have their own style.
