Appendix 1 - Conventions

The following typeface conventions are used to make the documentation clearer:

• Header 

• Subheader 

• code 
   - this style is used for all code examples, except see below.

• meta-variable  
   - this is used for meta-variables in the code, for example int  would mean that an integer or integer valued function or parameter should be used in that place.

• function template (as for code, but black rather than blue)
   - this is used for syntactic definition of a function - what types required, what types returned.

• source code for function
   - this is used where a piece of source code is given without supporting text, for example the source code of a library.

• warning
   - this is used for any text that needs to stand out.

In the function documentation, usually there is
   - a subheader (these may be grouped),
   - a description of the function,
   - the syntactic template,
   - the source code if any (sometimes 'direct coded' is used)
   - any examples.

For example:

length

length returns the number of elements in a list passed to it.

length[list ]-> int ;

  length[] -> 0;
  length[a,.b] -> length[b]+1;

Example:
  length[41,42,4,3,9,44] -> 4