9.1.1 Highlighting Commands are Useful

The highlighting commands can be used to extract useful information from the file, such as lists of functions or file names. It is possible, for example, to write a program in Emacs Lisp (or a keyboard macro) to insert an index entry after every paragraph that contains words or phrases marked by a specified command. You could do this to construct an index of functions if you had not already made the entries.

The commands serve a variety of purposes:

@code{sample-code}

Indicate text that is a literal example of a piece of a program. See section @code.

@kbd{keyboard-characters}

Indicate keyboard input. See section @kbd.

@key{key-name}

Indicate the conventional name for a key on a keyboard. See section @key.

@samp{text}

Indicate text that is a literal example of a sequence of characters. See section @samp.

@verb{text}

Write a verbatim sequence of characters. See section @verb.

@var{metasyntactic-variable}

Indicate a metasyntactic variable. See section @var.

@env{environment-variable}

Indicate an environment variable. See section @env.

@file{file-name}

Indicate the name of a file. See section @file.

@command{command-name}

Indicate the name of a command. See section @command.

@option{option}

Indicate a command-line option. See section @option.

@dfn{term}

Indicate the introductory or defining use of a term. See section @dfn.

@cite{reference}

Indicate the name of a book. See section @cite.

@abbr{abbreviation}

Indicate an abbreviation, such as `Comput.'.

@acronym{acronym}

Indicate an acronym. See section @acronym.

@indicateurl{uniform-resource-locator}

Indicate an example (that is, nonfunctional) uniform resource locator. See section @indicateurl. (Use @url (see section @url) for live url's.)

@email{email-address[, displayed-text]}

Indicate an electronic mail address. See section @email.