Conventions Used in This Book

The following is a list of typographical conventions used in this book:

Italic

Used to indicate new terms, URLs, filenames, file extensions, directories, and program names , and to highlight comments in examples. For instance, a path in the filesystem will appear as C:\Hacks\examples or /usr/sid/hacks/examples .

Constant width

Used to show code examples, XML markup, Java package or C# namespace names, commands and options, or output from commands.

  Constant width bold  

Used in examples to show emphasis or commands and other text that should be typed literally.

Constant width italic

Used in examples and tables to show text that should be replaced with user -supplied values.

You should pay special attention to notes set apart from the text with the following icons:

This is a tip, a suggestion, or a general note. It contains useful supplementary information about the topic at hand.

This is a warning or a note of caution.

The thermometer icons, found next to each hack, indicate the relative complexity of the hack:

beginner

moderate

expert