Stubborn Tech Problem Solving

Diary and notebook of whatever tech problems are irritating me at the moment.

20111123

Documentation standards for commands

Here are some references for shell script developers, man page creators, README writers, etc. While documentation styles are a bit haphazard and vary with OS and programming language, there are some standards.

For man pages see man-pages(7). What does that mean? You open a terminal window then type:

man 7 man-pages

The GNU project has some guidelines on writing software manuals. They recommend using Texinfo to create them.

The Debian Policy Manual says where the different documentation files should be located but not what they should look like.

The most detailed standard I've found is the Open Group Base Specifications utility conventions and typographical conventions.

I'm not going to admit to following these but please post any other IT technical writing style guides you know of. :D

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2 comments:

gavenkoa said...

Look to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIL-STD-498

December 13, 2011 at 10:11 AM
jhansonxi said...

Thanks. Looks useful but I don't want to know how many of my tax dollars were involved in writing it.

December 13, 2011 at 3:41 PM

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About Me

Omnifarious Implementer = I do just about everything. With my usual occupations this means anything an electrical engineer does not feel like doing including PCB design, electronic troubleshooting and repair, part sourcing, inventory control, enclosure machining, label design, PC support, network administration, plant maintenance, janitorial, etc. Non-occupational includes residential plumbing, heating, electrical, farming, automotive and small engine repair. There is plenty more but you get the idea.