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Sorry, I guess I'm letting my Un*x bias show. It drives me nuts when people use angle backets to indicate replaceable parameters in Un*x commands.
However, there is a still a key difference between BNF and the Microsoft conventions: BNF includes double quotes to indicate terminal (literal) characters, which the Microsoft convention does not use.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+ltam=ariba -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com on behalf of Dana Worley
Sent: Wed 12/1/2010 2:41 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Font choices
The Microsoft guidelines are very similar to EBNF syntax, which is supposedly language
agnostic. I was looking for EBNF when I typed my original post, but I was getting the letters
backwards in my search and not finding what I needed so I resorted to the MS guidelines :)
It's my understanding this is commonly known among programmers, and about as close to
an "industry standard" as there is. If you are looking for a font-free convention for presenting
syntax to programmers, it's a valid option.
On the other than, you can make up your own convention of bold, italic, and font changes,
and as long as you're consistent, they'll probably get it :)
Dana W.
> IMO, the Microsoft style conventions might not be suitable for APIs or other environments where
> the symbols Microsoft uses as delimiters (angle brackets, square brackets, etc.) have literal
> meanings. For example, most programming languages use square brackets to indicate arrays. In
> Un*x shells, angle brackets and pipes (|)direct input and output.
***************************
Dana Worley
Software Product Manager/Manager, Software Support Group
Campbell Scientific, Inc.
Microsoft MVP, Windows Help
www.jestersbaubles.blogspot.com
www.jestersbaubles.com
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