Quotations and examples are blocks of text consisting of one or more whole paragraphs that are set off from the bulk of the text and treated differently. They are usually indented.
In Texinfo, you always begin a quotation or example by writing an
@-command at the beginning of a line by itself, and end it by writing
an @end
command that is also at the beginning of a line by
itself. For instance, you begin an example by writing @example
by itself at the beginning of a line and end the example by writing
@end example
on a line by itself, at the beginning of that
line.
@smallbook
option.
Here are commands for quotations and examples:
@quotation
@example
@lisp
@smallexample
@example
, except that in TeX this command typesets text in
a smaller font for the smaller @smallbook
format than for the
8.5 by 11 inch format.
@smalllisp
@lisp
, except that
in TeX this command typesets text in a smaller font for the smaller
@smallbook
format than for the 8.5 by 11 inch format.
@display
@format
The @exdent
command is used within the above constructs to
undo the indentation of a line.
The @flushleft
and @flushright
commands are used to line
up the left or right margins of unfilled text.
The @noindent
command may be used after one of the above
constructs to prevent the following text from being indented as a new
paragraph.
You can use the @cartouche
command within one of the above
constructs to highlight the example or quotation by drawing a box with
rounded corners around it. (The @cartouche
command affects
only the printed manual; it has no effect in the Info file; see
section Drawing Cartouches Around Examples.)
@quotation
The text of a quotation is processed normally except that:
This is an example of text written between an
@quotation
command and an@end quotation
command. An@quotation
command is most often used to indicate text that is excerpted from another (real or hypothetical) printed work.
Write an @quotation
command as text on a line by itself. This
line will disappear from the output. Mark the end of the quotation
with a line beginning with and containing only @end quotation
.
The @end quotation
line will likewise disappear from the
output. Thus, the following,
@quotation This is a foo. @end quotation
produces
This is a foo.
@example
The @example
command is used to indicate an example that is
not part of the running text, such as computer input or output.
This is an example of text written between an@example
command and an@end example
command. The text is indented but not filled. In the printed manual, the text is typeset in a fixed-width font, and extra spaces and blank lines are significant. In the Info file, an analogous result is obtained by indenting each line with five spaces.
Write an @example
command at the beginning of a line by itself.
This line will disappear from the output. Mark the end of the example
with an @end example
command, also written at the beginning of a
line by itself. The @end example
will disappear from the
output.
For example,
@example mv foo bar @end example
produces
mv foo bar
Since the lines containing @example
and @end example
will disappear, you should put a blank line before the
@example
and another blank line after the @end
example
. (Remember that blank lines between the beginning
@example
and the ending @end example
will appear in
the output.)
Caution: Do not use tabs in the lines of an example (or anywhere else in Texinfo, for that matter)! TeX treats tabs as single spaces, and that is not what they look like. This is a problem with TeX. (If necessary, in Emacs, you can use M-x untabify to convert tabs in a region to multiple spaces.)
Examples are often, logically speaking, "in the middle" of a
paragraph, and the text continues after an example should not be
indented. The @noindent
command prevents a piece of text from
being indented as if it were a new paragraph.
(The @code
command is used for examples of code that are
embedded within sentences, not set off from preceding and following
text. See section @code
{sample-code}.)
@noindent
An example or other inclusion can break a paragraph into segments.
Ordinarily, the formatters indent text that follows an example as a new
paragraph. However, you can prevent this by writing @noindent
at the beginning of a line by itself preceding the continuation
text.
For example:
@example This is an example @end example @noindent This line is not indented. As you can see, the beginning of the line is fully flush left with the line that follows after it. (This whole example is between @code{@@display} and @code{@@end display}.)
produces
This is an exampleThis line is not indented. As you can see, the beginning of the line is fully flush left with the line that follows after it. (This whole example is between@display
and@end display
.)
To adjust the number of blank lines properly in the Info file output,
remember that the line containing @noindent
does not generate a
blank line, and neither does the @end example
line.
In the Texinfo source file for this manual, each line that says
`produces' is preceded by a line containing @noindent
.
Do not put braces after an @noindent
command; they are not
necessary, since @noindent
is a command used outside of
paragraphs (see section @-Command Syntax).
@lisp
The @lisp
command is used for Lisp code. It is synonymous
with the @example
command.
This is an example of text written between an@lisp
command and an@end lisp
command.
Use @lisp
instead of @example
so as to preserve
information regarding the nature of the example. This is useful, for
example, if you write a function that evaluates only and all the Lisp
code in a Texinfo file. Then you can use the Texinfo file as a Lisp
library.(8)
Mark the end of @lisp
with @end lisp
on a line by
itself.
@smallexample
and @smalllisp
In addition to the regular @example
and @lisp
commands,
Texinfo has two other "example-style" commands. These are the
@smallexample
and @smalllisp
commands. Both these
commands are designed for use with the @smallbook
command that
causes TeX to produce a printed manual in a 7 by 9.25 inch format
rather than the regular 8.5 by 11 inch format.
In TeX, the @smallexample
and @smalllisp
commands
typeset text in a smaller font for the smaller @smallbook
format than for the 8.5 by 11 inch format. Consequently, many examples
containing long lines fit in a narrower, @smallbook
page
without needing to be shortened. Both commands typeset in the normal
font size when you format for the 8.5 by 11 inch size; indeed,
in this situation, the @smallexample
and @smalllisp
commands are defined to be the @example
and @lisp
commands.
In Info, the @smallexample
and @smalllisp
commands are
equivalent to the @example
and @lisp
commands, and work
exactly the same.
Mark the end of @smallexample
or @smalllisp
with
@end smallexample
or @end smalllisp
,
respectively.
Here is an example written in the small font used by the
@smallexample
and @smalllisp
commands:
This is an example of text written between@smallexample
and@end smallexample
. In Info and in an 8.5 by 11 inch manual, this text appears in its normal size; but in a 7 by 9.25 inch manual, this text appears in a smaller font.
The @smallexample
and @smalllisp
commands make it
easier to prepare smaller format manuals without forcing you to edit
examples by hand to fit them onto narrower pages.
As a general rule, a printed document looks better if you write all the
examples in a chapter consistently in @example
or in
@smallexample
. Only occasionally should you mix the two
formats.
See section Printing "Small" Books, for more information
about the @smallbook
command.
@display
The @display
command begins a kind of example. It is like the
@example
command
except that, in
a printed manual, @display
does not select the fixed-width
font. In fact, it does not specify the font at all, so that the text
appears in the same font it would have appeared in without the
@display
command.
This is an example of text written between an@display
command and an@end display
command. The@display
command indents the text, but does not fill it.
@format
The @format
command is similar to @example
except
that, in the printed manual, @format
does not select the
fixed-width font and does not narrow the margins.
This is an example of text written between an@format
command and an@end format
command. As you can see from this example, the@format
command does not fill the text.
@exdent
: Undoing a Line's Indentation
The @exdent
command removes any indentation a line might have.
The command is written at the beginning of a line and applies only to
the text that follows the command that is on the same line. Do not use
braces around the text. In a printed manual, the text on an
@exdent
line is printed in the roman font.
@exdent
is usually used within examples. Thus,
@example This line follows an @@example command. @exdent This line is exdented. This line follows the exdented line. The @@end example comes on the next line. @end group
produces
This line follows an @example command. This line is exdented. This line follows the exdented line. The @end example comes on the next line.
In practice, the @exdent
command is rarely used.
Usually, you un-indent text by ending the example and
returning the page to its normal width.
@flushleft
and @flushright
The @flushleft
and @flushright
commands line up the
ends of lines on the left and right margins of a page,
but do not fill the text. The commands are written on lines of their
own, without braces. The @flushleft
and @flushright
commands are ended by @end flushleft
and @end
flushright
commands on lines of their own.
For example,
@flushleft This text is written flushleft. @end flushleft
produces
This text is written flushleft.
Flushright produces the type of indentation often used in the return address of letters.
For example,
@flushright Here is an example of text written flushright. The @code{@flushright} command right justifies every line but leaves the left end ragged. @end flushright
produces
Here is an example of text written
flushright. The @flushright
command
right justifies every line but leaves the
left end ragged.
In a printed manual, the @cartouche
command draws a box with
rounded corners around its contents. You can use this command to
further highlight an example or quotation. For instance, you could
write a manual in which one type of example is surrounded by a cartouche
for emphasis.
The @cartouche
command affects only the printed manual; it has
no effect in the Info file.
For example,
@example @cartouche % pwd /usr/local/lib/emacs/info @end cartouche @end example
surrounds the two-line example with a box with rounded corners, in the printed manual.
In a printed manual, the example looks like this:
% pwd /usr/local/lib/emacs/info