Conventions

Introduction
byJohn Kauffman, Fabio Claudio Ferracchiatiet al.?
Wrox Press ?2002

We've used a number of different styles of text and layout in this book to help differentiate between different kinds of information. Here are examples of the styles we use, and an explanation of what they mean.

Code has several styles. If it's a word that we're talking about in the text - for example, when discussing a For...Next loop - it's in this font. If it's a block of code that can be typed as a program and run, then it's also in a gray box:

    <?xml version 1.0?> 

Sometimes, you'll see code in a mixture of styles, like this:

    <?xml version 1.0?>    <Invoice>       <part>          <name>Widget</name>          <price>$10.00</price>       </part>    </invoice> 

In these cases, the code with a white background represents either something that we're already familiar with, or something that's not important in the current discussion. The line highlighted in gray is either a new addition to the code since we last looked at it, or the focus of the current discussion.

Advice, hints, and background information come in this style.

Important 

Important pieces of information come in boxes like this.

Bullets appear indented, with each new bullet marked as follows:

• Important Words are in a bold font

• Words that appear on the screen, or in menus like Open or Close, are in a similar font to the one you would see on a Windows desktop

• Keys that you press on the keyboard, like Ctrl and Enter, are in italics