281 lines
9.4 KiB
Plaintext
281 lines
9.4 KiB
Plaintext
*Style guide for the Ardour manual*
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1. Rationale
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============
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The Ardour manual should be consistent across different media, and it should
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be easily updatable when Ardour's behaviour changes.
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The markup should be semantic - looks are determined in the CSS, and only
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there. If you feel you must compromise the markup in order to obtain a
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certain look: don't do it. Accept the look.
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Alternatively, edit the CSS, but be careful not to make matters worse
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elsewhere.
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1.1 visual markup
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-----------------
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<b>,<i>,<u>,<font> or any other purely visual elements are not used in
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the Ardour manual.
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What you really mean is an <em>phasis or a <strong> emphasis.
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If you feel that some special terms should always be green and underlined, the
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approach of choice is this:
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<span class="my_important_keyword">foobar</span>
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and then add
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.my_important_keyword {
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text-decoration: underline;
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color: #004400;
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background-color: #eeffee;
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}
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to apps.css.
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If you add a new class with semantic meaning, document it below, under
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"Custom classes", and be sure to explain it to the reader at
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_manual/01_welcome-to-ardour/02_about-ardour-documentation.html.
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2. Format and Validation
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========================
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The Ardour manual has been converted to valid XHTML 1.0. That means it must
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be valid XML, with all tags closed properly. The reason for this extra
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complication is that XML can be more easily checked and automatically
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refactored than plain HTML, which eases maintenance.
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Watch out for the ampersand "&" and angle brackets "<" and ">". They will
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render your XHTML invalid, and must be replaced by their named entities
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"&", "<", and ">".
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3. Custom classes
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=================
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We use the class attribute for some aspects of styling (such as to float an
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image left or right in a text paragraph), and also for more fine-grained
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semantic markup than core XHTML allows.
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Any XHTML element can include a class attribute. If you need to add a class
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attribute to a word or a few words which don't have an element of their own,
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use <span class="my_new_category">foo bar</span>.
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If you need to apply a class to several block-level elements such as
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paragraphs or lists, enclose them in a <div>..</div>. Wherever possible,
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create semantic classes rather than visual ones.
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.left:
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make an element float left in the surrounding paragraph.
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.right:
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make an element float right in the surrounding paragraph.
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.note:
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use for important notes that should be visually distinct from the
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normal text flow, or asides. Currently rendered in a gray box.
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.warning:
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use for potentially dangerous situations involving data loss, malfunction,
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or sound quality issues. Currently rendered in a red box.
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.mac, .lin, .win:
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use as additional classes to mark a section as relevant for these operating
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systems only.
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Check _manual/01_welcome-to-ardour/02_about-ardour-documentation.html, it
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serves as a style and markup guide.
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4. Element use
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==============
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4.1 Main structural elements
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----------------------------
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<h1>..<h6>
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A <h1/> heading is added by the Ruby framework, so it should not be used in
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the manual page itself. If you feel you need another <h1>, start a new
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subpage.
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Heading levels must not be skipped. Any sub-heading must be exactly one
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level below its predecessor. Do not abuse headings to style a head line.
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<p>
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Every snippet of text should be enclosed in a block level element. The
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default choice is <p>, the plain paragraph.
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<a>
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Cross-reference links in the manual are reasonably stable, since they are
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independent of the ordering number (which gets removed from the URL) and the
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pretty page title (the URL is created from the file name). So unless a file
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is renamed or moved to another sub-directory, links should be ok.
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4.1 Inline markups
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------------------
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<dfn>
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encloses a newly introduced term that is being explained. Use for the first
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occurrence of the main concept of every manual page, or the first occurrence
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of a new concept after a sub-heading if necessary.
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Keep in mind that <dfn> tags might be used to generate an index of keywords
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- don't pollute it too much.
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<abbr>
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is used to explain an abbreviation such as <abbr title="Linux Audio
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Developers Simple Plugin API">LADSPA</abbr>. Browsers will usually pop up the
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definition when the user hovers over the word.
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On each page, use only for the first occurrence of every abbreviation. Avoid
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a redundant explanation in the text - the expansion can easily be extracted
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via CSS for printing.
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Use only in the text body, not in headings.
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<em>
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is used to emphasize a word. Commonly rendered as italics.
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Use only if its a truly ad-hoc, one-off situation. For anything else,
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consider adding a new semantic markup with <span class="foo">.
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<strong>
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is used to strongly emphasize a word. Commonly rendered in bold.
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See above for usage.
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<br />
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A line-break can sometimes be used to structure a paragraph, or to split a
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longish heading. Never use spurious <br/>s at the end of paragraphs or to
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control the spacing of sections. If you're unhappy with those, fix the CSS
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(which fixes the entire manual in one go!)
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4.2 Lists
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---------
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<ul>,<ol>
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Use the unordered list for information snippets that do not have an implied
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order. The ordered list should always be used when a sequence of actions is
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described. Within the lists, each item must be enclosed in <li> tags.
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Lists cannot be included in <p>aragraphs. Close the paragraph first.
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<dl>
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Definition lists are for technical terms <dt> and their definition <dd>. Do
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not abuse them for anything else.
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4.3 Quotations
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--------------
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<blockquote>
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is used when an entire paragraph is quoted. Must contain a
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cite="http://mysource.net/foo.pdf" attribute. Do not abuse to indent a
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paragraph!
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<cite>,<q>
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For inline citations, the <cite>W3C</cite> recommends to <q
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cite="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/dtds.html">use the cite and q
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elements</q>.
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4.4 Keyboard/Controller interaction
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------------------------------------
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<kbd>
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Any keys or key combinations, mouse buttons or controllers, menu items or
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textual user input should be marked with this element. It is used here in
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the widest possible sense, qualified by classes.
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E.g.:
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"Press <kbd>F</kbd> to fit all tracks to the height of the Editor window."
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"Move <kbd>Fader 1</kbd> on your MIDI controller to bind it.
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"
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Since modifier keys are not cross-platform and Ardour makes a point of
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abstracting them, do not hard-code "Alt", "Cmd" and friends, use
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class="modN"
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instead.
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So if you want the user to press Ctrl-N on Linux, that's actually <kbd
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class="mod1">N</kbd>. It will render as "Ctrl+N" for you, and as "Cmd+N" for
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your Mac-using friend. Nice, uh?
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For anything you want the user to type, use <kbd> as a block-level element.
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See above for other <kbd> classes to denote menu items, selections, mouse
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events and controller actions.
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Keys and mouse key names should always be capitalized. We do not need to
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distringuish between "x" and "X", because the latter would be "Shift-X".
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In case you forget, the stylesheet takes care of this.
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CSS Classes used with <kbd> are:
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.modN
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.mouse: mouse buttons
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.cmd: a command line
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.lin, .win, .mac: add nice prompts to that command line
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.input: inline text to be entered by the user
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.menu: path to an Ardour menu or other GUI item
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.option: path to an option, with (X) at the end.
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.optoff: path to an option, with ( ) at the end.
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.button, .fader, .knob: external controllers (OSC or MIDI).
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<code>
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is only used for program code, or the content of configuration files etc. Do
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not abuse to style keys or user input, use <kbd> instead.
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<samp>
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is only used for the textual output of any code, never for anything the user
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types or presses.
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4.5 Images
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----------
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<img>
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The image tag must contain a 'src="/images/yourimage.png"' element and a
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descriptive 'alt="A short textual description of the image content"'
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element.
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Images are usually placed as block-level elements, i.e. outside of a
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paragraph.
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5. Other conventions
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====================
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5.1 Typography
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--------------
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* Avoid any typographical quotation marks to highlight terms or express any
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kind of subtle inflection, use semantic markup instead.
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* The hyphen is used to for compound words such as this well-advised example.
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* Do not hyphenate words at line breaks.
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* For breaks in thought — such as this splendid example — use
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the long em-dash.
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* For ranges of values, use the en-dash: Monday – Friday, 0 –
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11.
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* Use a non-breaking space (" ") between a number and its unit.
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5.2 Language
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------------
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* The Ardour manual is written in Americal English spelling.
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* Use SI units with standard abbreviations. Give imperial units only as
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additional information, if at all.
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5.3 Chapter Headline Capitalization
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------------------------------------
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Capitalization follows
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https://developer.gnome.org/hig-book/3.6/design-text-labels.html.en#layout-capitalization
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:
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* Capitalize all words in the headline, with the following exceptions:
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Articles: a, an, the.
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Conjunctions: and, but, for, not, so, yet ...
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Prepositions of three or fewer letters: at, for, by, in, to ...
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* Keep headlines short and concise.
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* secondary headlines in articles are not capitalized
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* Do not capitalize concepts in the text body, with the possible exceptions
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of _the_ Editor and _the_ Mixer.
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5.4 Janitorial tasks/review
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---------------------------
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If you encounter something that is unclear or patent nonsense, but you are
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not bold or knowledgeable to fix it, express your doubts with an <p
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class="fixme">editorial note</p>, so that readers will be warned and fellow
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editors know where there's work to do.
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