From: cleggp@rebecca.its.rpi.edu (Paul Jason Clegg)
Newsgroups: alt.galactic-guide
Subject: ADMIN:  Formatting Guide
Date: 17 Dec 92 17:50:54 GMT
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY


                    Writing Guide for Entries
                       For Publication in
           The HitchHiker's Guide to the Known Galaxy

	Entries in the HHGTTKG have a very specific format to allow for
easy parsing by third-party readers.  Although we may accept entries that
do not conform with the following standard (standard as of 12-8-92), we
(the editors of the Guide) ask that potential field researchers and towel
owners try to put their entries in as close to true form as possible, making
it a lot easier on our editors.

Sample Format:

%t Title
%n identification number
%s summary
%a author
%d date (in yyyymmdd format)
%x xrefs (unlimited number)
%i index (unlimited number)
%e Entry beginning
This is a sample entry.
%e Entry end.

%t Title:  Should not wrap around an 80-column screen, if possible.  This
           is the subject title of the entry.  Names should be put in
           last, first middle fashion.  There are no points for catchy titles!
           The title should be a simple statement of what's in the article.
           A bad title would be "Paul Clegg, the Hoopiest Frood in All of
           Creation" because a) the name is not in last, first, middle fashion,
           and b) it's not succinct.  An appropriate title would be "Clegg,
           Paul Jason", and then maybe for a summary line, use "The Hoopiest
           Frood in All of Creation", but not in the title.

%n ID Number:  This string is composed of three main parts: editor ID, reality
           index, and message ID.  The editor ID is the number up until the
           reality index, and the message ID is the number after that.  Every
           editor will have a unique ID number.  The reality index is a single
           character, either R (for Real articles), U (for Unreal articles), 
           or S (for Semi-Real articles).  The message ID number is a decimal
           number.  Remember that you, the author, do NOT need to have an
           editor number!  Your credit is spelled out as your name (see below)
           and the editor number is just for reference (so we can scream and
           yell at them for missing typos and such).

%s Summary:  Should not wrap around an 80-column screen, if possible.  This
           is just a short one-liner about the entry, without going into
           too much detail.

%a Author:  Your name, in straight first-middle-last fashion.  In parenthesis,
           add your email address after your name, so that people can figure
           out who to talk to if they have questions (more likely, it'll be
           for the editors and such to get back to you).  Use two spaces
           between your name and the parenthesis.  An example would be:
           Paul Jason Clegg  (cleggp@rpi.edu)

%d Date:  The date you wrote the article.  The fashion is yyyymmdd, so
           December 25, 1991 would be written 19911225.  Single-digit
           numbers should be filled out with zeros.  July 4, 1991 would
           be 19910704, NOT 199174!

%x XRefs:  Cross references.  Your entry can contain any number of logical
           cross references.  Each should be on a separate line starting
           with the %x marker.  These lines should contain the names of
           ACTUAL ENTRY TITLES.

%i Indexes:  These are names by which the Title might also be known by.
           Your entry may contain any number of these, so long as each is
           on a separate line marked by the %i marker.  For entries on 
           people, indexes that should definitely be included are their
           full names in first-middle-last format, their first-last names,
           their last-first names, and so on.  This also includes permutations
           of the title, such as RPI, Rensselaer Polytechnic, and Rensselaer
           Polytechnic Inst, would all be %i's for Rensselaer Polytechnic
           Institute.  Don't be afraid to go a bit overboard, just so long as
           every index used is obviously appropriate.

%e Entry Markers:  These indicate the beginning and ends of the entries.
           These markers should occupy a single line by themselves.  Every-
           thing after the first %e is the entry, and the entry is ended by
           another %e on a separate line.

ENTRY FORMATTING:

	For readability, space considerations, and technical reasons, the
editors of the Guide ask that your entries be written in a specific format.

Tabulation:  The beginning of every paragraph should NOT start with a tab.

Paragraph spacing:  There should be an extra blank line between paragraphs,
        but NOT after the final paragraph, which should be followed by the %e.

Lists:  If, for some reason, you find a list necessary for your entry, it
        should be spaced in from the left 10 characters, and begin with a
        number, followed by a ) .  Thus, the 3rd entry in a list would begin:

          3) This is the third part of a list.

        If, for some reason, your list goes to 1000, do NOT add commas in the
        number.  Also, there should be a blank line just before the first
        list entry, and just after the last entry, as seen in the example
        above.

Underlining:  Things that should be underlined (like book names) should be
        preceded by an underscore "_" and then ended with an underscore "_",
        but there should NOT be underscores between words.  Thus, the name
        of The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy would be written as _The
        HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy_, and NOT _The_Hitch.. etc...

Hyphenation:  Words should NOT be hyphenated at the end of a line.  If it
        doesn't fit, just move the whole thing to the next line.

Punctuation:  There should be a single space after commas and semicolons.
        There should be TWO spaces after periods, question marks, exclamation
        marks, and colons.  Dashes are made with two hyphens, and, for read-
        ability, a single space before and after a dash -- like that.

Final Notes:
     This is version 1.00 of the format.  There may still be a few things
to be altered in the near future, but the items mentioned here are pretty
definite.

...Paul

-- 
+                +        +    +  + + +  +    +        +                +
  Paul Clegg, cleggp@aix.rpi.edu.   <I> killed God, why do you ask? 
         System One RPG designer.   Project Galactic Guide Coordinator.
+                +        +    +  + + +  +    +        +                +
Newsgroups: alt.galactic-guide