Re: [docbook-apps] overbar or overline use

[Tony Graham <Tony dot Graham at Sun dot COM>]

Thane Sinclaire <tsinclaire@yahoo.com> wrote at Thu, 29 Jul 2004 04:35:11 -0700 (PDT):
> Actually I would like to have it for both print and online (i.e.,
> html). I would have also liked it for plain text but I understand
> that having an overline in plain ascii text is just not going to
> happen.

For CSS, use 'text-decoration: overline'.

For plain text, if your system can do it, use &#x305;, COMBINING
OVERLINE.

> Which in some ways makes me wonder and ask the question as to
> whether one can get away from using overbars to represent active
> signals in user manuals? The overbar/overline seems to have been the
> standard in the past, but it also limits what software one can use
> to write technical references that include active signals.
>
> For a single source document (which I understand is one of the
> purposes of using xml and what has drawn me to using docbook), are
> there other ways to represent active signals/pins? Or is there
> another standard that I am unaware of? I have considered using an
> underscore n after the signal or pine (i.e., pin_n, or signal_n).

It's been so long that I've forgotten what I used to use when I was an
electrical engineer, but I would suggest a leading underscore instead
of a trailing one; i.e., '_A', not 'A_', for the benefit of people who
would pronounce the inverted form of signal A as 'not A' rather than
'A bar'.

You could also consider '!A' given the wide use of '!' for logical
negation in programming languages.

There's also some use of '~' as 'not', or you can be technically
correct and confuse many of your readers by using &#xAC;, NOT SIGN.

Regards,


Tony Graham
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