1 *Style guide for the Ardour manual*
8 The Ardour manual should be consistent across different media, and it should
9 be easily updatable when Ardour's behaviour changes.
10 The markup should be semantic - looks are determined in the CSS, and only
11 there. If you feel you must compromise the markup in order to obtain a
12 certain look: don't do it. Accept the look.
13 Alternatively, edit the CSS, but be careful not to make matters worse
20 <b>,<i>,<u>,<font> or any other purely visual elements are not used in
22 What you really mean is an <em>phasis or a <strong> emphasis.
23 If you feel that some special terms should always be green and underlined, the
24 approach of choice is this:
25 <span class="my_important_keyword">foobar</span>
27 .my_important_keyword {
28 text-decoration: underline;
30 background-color: #eeffee;
33 If you add a new class with semantic meaning, document it below, under
37 2. Format and Validation
38 ========================
40 The Ardour manual has been converted to valid XHTML 1.0. That means it must
41 be valid XML, with all tags closed properly. The reason for this extra
42 complication is that XML can be more easily checked and automatically
43 refactored than plain HTML, which eases maintenance.
45 Watch out for the ampersand "&" and angle brackets "<" and ">". They will
46 render your XHTML invalid, and must be replaced by their named entities
47 "&", "<", and ">".
53 We use the class attribute for some aspects of styling (such as to float an
54 image left or right in a text paragraph), and also for more fine-grained
55 semantic markup than core XHTML allows.
57 Any XHTML element can include a class attribute. If you need to add a class
58 attribute to a word or a few words which don't have an element of their own,
59 use <span class="my_new_category">foo bar</span>.
60 If you need to apply a class to several block-level elements such as
61 paragraphs or lists, enclose them in a <div>..</div>. Wherever possible,
62 create semantic classes rather than visual ones.
65 make an element float left in the surrounding paragraph.
68 make an element float right in the surrounding paragraph.
71 use for important notes that should be visually distinct from the
72 normal text flow, or asides. Currently rendered in a gray box.
75 use for potentially dangerous situations involving data loss, malfunction,
76 or sound quality issues. Currently rendered in a red box.
83 4.1 Main structural elements
84 ----------------------------
87 A <h1/> heading is added by the Ruby framework, so it should not be used in
88 the manual page itself. If you feel you need another <h1>, start a new
90 Heading levels must not be skipped. Any sub-heading must be exactly one
91 level below its predecessor. Do not abuse headings to style a head line.
94 Every snippet of text should be enclosed in a block level element. The
95 default choice is <p>, the plain paragraph.
102 encloses a newly introduced term that is being explained. Use for the first
103 occurrence of the main concept of every manual page, or the first occurrence
104 of a new concept after a sub-heading if necessary.
107 is used to explain an abbreviation such as <abbr title="Linux Audio
108 Developers Simple Plugin API">LADSPA</abbr>. Browsers will usually pop up the
109 definition when the user hovers over the word, and it can easily be
110 extracted via CSS for printing.
111 Use only for the first occurrence of every new abbreviation.
114 is used to emphasize a word. Commonly rendered as italics.
115 Use only if its a truly ad-hoc, one-off situation. For anything else,
116 consider adding a new semantic markup with <span class="foo">.
119 is used to strongly emphasize a word. Commonly rendered in bold.
123 A line-break can sometimes be used to structure a paragraph, or to split a
124 longish heading. Never use spurious <br/>s at the end of paragraphs or to
125 control the spacing of sections. If you're unhappy with those, fix the CSS
126 (which fixes the entire manual in one go!)
133 Use the unordered list for information snippets that do not have an implied
134 order. The ordered list should always be used when a sequence of actions is
135 described. Within the lists, each item must be enclosed in <li> tags.
136 Lists cannot be included in <p>aragraphs. Close the paragraph first.
139 Definition lists are for technical terms <dt> and their definition <dd>. Do
140 not abuse them for anything else.
147 is used when an entire paragraph is quoted. Must contain a
148 cite="http://mysource.net/foo.pdf" attribute. Do not abuse to indent a
152 For inline citations, the <cite>W3C</cite> recommends to <q
153 cite="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/dtds.html">use the cite and q
157 4.4 Keyboard/Controller interaction
158 ------------------------------------
161 Any keys or key combinations, mouse buttons, or controllers should be marked
164 "Press <kbd>F</kbd> to fit all tracks to the height of the Editor window."
165 "Move <kbd>Fader 1</kbd> on your MIDI controller to bind it.
167 Since modifier keys are not cross-platform and Ardour makes a point of
168 abstracting them, do not hard-code "Alt", "Cmd" and friends, use
171 So if you want the user to press Ctrl-N on Linux, that's actually <kbd
172 class="mod1">N</kbd>. It will render as "Ctrl+N" for you, and as "Cmd+N" for
173 your Mac-using friend. Nice, uh?
175 For anything you want the user to type, use <kbd> as a block-level element.
178 is only used for program code, or the content of configuration files etc. Do
179 not abuse to style keys or user input, use <kbd> instead.
182 is only used for the textual output of any code, never for anything the user
190 The image tag must contain a 'src="/images/yourimage.png"' element and a
191 descriptive 'alt="A short textual description of the image content"'
198 * Avoid any typographical quotation marks to highlight terms or express any
199 kind of subtle inflection, use semantic markup instead.
200 * The hyphen is used to for compound words such as this well-advised example.
201 * Do not hyphenate words at line breaks.
202 * For breaks in thought — such as this splendid example — use
204 * For ranges of values, use the en-dash: Monday – Friday, 0 –