and Plauger’s Software Tools, Addison-Wesley, 1976!) use a similar convention: ^bp page break ^ls n linespacing ^he s define page header ^fo s define page footer
• My formatter prints the pair ampersand numbersign ( “&#” ) as a single numbersign ( “#” ). Thus, I use “&#&#&#” as a section break. When a numbersign ( “#” ) is not preceded by an ampersand, it is supposed to be a single space. (I use this character to force vertical whitespace and as part of the indent for paragraphs.)
• Where the first alpha characters on a line are “NOTE”, you are normally seeing a note to the copyeditor. (I use this mostly to flag the beginning of monospace font (eg, Courier) for the Net messages.)
I use tags a lot. In a sense almost anything could become a tag (and a target for grep), but the most formalized tags and their meanings are as follows.
AWK The referenced prose seems awkward. (Hopefully most of these are fixed.)
BKG The comment is background.
CHAR The comment is related to some character issue.
CHKd Issue from CHK comment has been verified.
CHK The comment involves something that I should verify.
CHRON The comment requires a check of the consistency of the timing or sequence of the story
DEL Delete
DONE The action suggested in the comment has been done.
FIXED I fixed the problem raised by the question.
FIX Same as FIXED.
FRAG The commented text is a fragment either something that is looking for a home in the manuscript, or perhaps the reverse, namely text that has been removed/replaced. In the latter case, the fragment may contradict the published story line.
iD An idea that has either been incorporated or eleminated from consideration.
ID Comment represents an idea for consideration
IDEA The comment is an idea unrelated to this story.
ID The comment is an idea related to this story.
IMPER The comment was thought to be imperative.
iMP The comment was thought to be important, but has been resolved
IMP The comment was thought to be important.
incon An inconsistency since resolved.
iNCON Inconsistency, since resolved
INCON The comment identifies an inconsistency in the story or facts.
INSERT Very late changes that were made in the manuscript (probably as updates from hardcopy).
mARK A bookmark in the text use for traversals, but no longer needed
MARK The comment was a book mark used during traversals.
MiRT Refers to my novel Marooned in Realtime.
MODE The notion that almost every human attribute (name, size, gender, …) would come in two “modes” for the Tines — one mode as the attribute applies to a pack member, and the other mode as the attribute applies to a whole pack.
NÆH I decided there was no need to follow through on the suggestion.
NO I didn’t follow through on the suggestion in the comment.
NOTE TO COPY-EDITOR This comment is a note to the copy editor
NOTE Usually same as NOTE TO COPY-EDITOR.
NO TIME I didn’t follow through on the comment or suggestion because I ran out of time.
pRB Problem, since resolved.
PRB The comment relates to a problem about the story.
pRO The comment describes changes that should be made later in the story, and have since been resolved.
PRO The comment describes changes that should be made later in the story (“prowritten”).
qU Question, since resolved.
QU The comment is a question that I have.
rEN Renaming, since done.
REN The comment relates to the names in the story (or naming issues).
rETRO Changes that should be made earlier in the story that have been resolved.
RETRO The comment describes changes that should be made earlier in the story (“retrowritten”).
SEQ The comment is about a sequel (or prequel) possibility.
SIDE Originally, I had thought it might be nice to have sidebars about background issues in the novel. I never followed up on this except with the interstellar email and newsgroups.
SOLN The comment discusses a solution to some difficulty I have.
SORRY I couldn’t follow through on the suggestion in the comment.
TITLE The comment is a title suggestion.
TUF I didn’t follow through on the suggestion in the comment.
TYRA Related to the character Tyrathect.
YES Indicates agreement with the comment or suggestion.
If the first letter of a tag is lower case, this means the issue in question has been taken care of. (However, this convention is not consistently followed.) CHKd means I did verify the information in question.
Most unattributed comments are by me. Comments from consultants are normally prefixed by the consultant’s initials. (The initials “vsv” and the pronouns “I” and “you” often refer to me; I talk to myself a lot, with and without special notations!)
As my work progressed, there came to be layers of comments. In most