Conventions

Data types are formatted like this: int, Point, Path. Plurals are formatted in the same way: ints, Points, Paths. It is poor typographical practice to typeset a single word using more than one font, e.g., ints, Points, Paths. This applies to data types whose plurals do not end in "s" as well, e.g., the plural of the C++ class Polyhedron is Polyhedra.

When C++ functions are discussed in this manual, I always include a pair of parentheses to make it clear that the item in question is a function and not a variable, but I generally do not include the arguments. For example, if I mention the function foo(), this doesn't imply that foo() takes no arguments. If it were appropriate, I would include the argument type:

     foo(int)
     

or the argument type and a placeholder name:

     foo(int arg)
     

or I would write

     foo(void)
     

to indicate that foo() takes no arguments. Also, I generally don't indicate the return type, unless it is relevant. If it is a member function of a class, I may indicate this, e.g.,, bar_class::foo(), or not, depending on whether this information is relevant. This convention differs from that used in the Function Index, which is generated automatically by Texinfo. There, only the name of the function appears, without parentheses, parameters, or return values. The class type of member functions may appear in the Function Index, (e.g., bar_class::foo), but only in index entries that have been entered explicitly by the author; such entries are not generated by Texinfo automatically.

Examples are formatted as follows:

     Point p0(1, 2, 3);
     Point p1(5, 6, 7.9);
     Path pa(p0, p1);
     p0.show("p0:");
     -| p0: (1, 2, 3)
     

The beautiful mathematical typesetting produced by TeX unfortunately does not appear in the Info and HTML versions of this manual. In these, the following symbols are used to replace the proper mathematical symbols.

^

Precedes a superscript. For example, read a^2 as "a squared".

_

Precedes a subscript. For example, read x_1 as "x sub one".

*

Multiplication. For example, read x * y as "x times y".

sqrt()

The square root function. For example, read sqrt(x) as "the square root of x".

In addition, examples can contain the following symbols:

-|

Indicates output to the terminal when 3DLDF is run.

=>

Indicates a result of some sort. It may precede a illustration generated by the code in the example.

error-->

Indicates that the following text is an error message.

This manual does not use all of the symbols provided by Texinfo. If you find a symbol you don't understand in this manual (which shouldn't happen), see page 103 of the Texinfo manual.

Symbols:

N

The set of the natural numbers {0, 1, 2, 3, 4, ...}

I

The set of the integers {..., -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, ...}

R

The set of the real numbers.