[FM Discuss] I have finished editing Introduction to the Command Line

[Andy Oram]

Peter: I have a question about our deadline: did we stick to the April 7 deadline for you publication?

I'm comfortable with everything but the Perl section. As a contributor pointed out on the IRC, that section gets into complex details too quickly and makes Perl look arcane. I could do something about that, but it would take time. I don't know if that section is important enough in the manual to do that.

Also, Ed's mail reminded me that there are lots of little clerical things that could be done. I didn't bother to enforce all conventions, such as:

* What fonts? I prefer italic for filenames and commands; bold for things such as variables or the q you use to quit an interactive program. Careful use of fonts makes it unnecessary to throw in quotes, as in "$?".

* Spelling: some is British and some American; sometimes "meta character" is spelled as two words but I prefer one.

Lots of people could fix these things if they have the time. I'm spoiled because I let copy-editors do it at my job. And I know that a reader can understand the manual even if they're inconsistent; the changes are mostly aesthetic.

Andy