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272 lines
8.3 KiB
272 lines
8.3 KiB
@c {{{Texinfo}}}@c {{{ Setup
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\input texinfo
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@setfilename diction.info
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@settitle diction, print wordy and commonly misused phrases in sentences
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@syncodeindex ky cp
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@syncodeindex pg cp
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@syncodeindex tp cp
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@defcodeindex op
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@syncodeindex op fn
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@syncodeindex vr fn
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@ifinfo
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@direntry
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* diction: (diction). print wordy and commonly misused phrases in sentences.
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@end direntry
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This file documents @command{diction}, a program to print wordy and
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commonly misused phrases in sentences.
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Published by the Free Software Foundation,
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59 Temple Place - Suite 330
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Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA
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Copyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Michael Haardt
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Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
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manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
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preserved on all copies.
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Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
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this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that
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the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
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permission notice identical to this one.
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Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual
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into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions,
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except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved
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by Michael Haardt.
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@end ifinfo
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@setchapternewpage off
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@c }}}
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@c {{{ Title page
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@titlepage
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@title diction, print wordy and commonly misused phrases in sentences
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@subtitle version @VERSION@, @UPDATED@
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@author Michael Haardt
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@page
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@vskip 0pt plus 1filll
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Copyright @copyright{} 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Michael Haardt
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@sp 2
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Published by the Free Software Foundation, @*
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59 Temple Place - Suite 330, @*
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Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA
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Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
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manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
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preserved on all copies.
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Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
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this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided that
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the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a
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permission notice identical to this one.
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Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual
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into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions,
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except that this permission notice may be stated in a translation approved
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by Michael Haardt.
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@end titlepage
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@c }}}
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@c {{{ Overview
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@page
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@ifnottex
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@node Top
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@top Diction
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@command{diction} prints wordy and commonly misused phrases in sentences.
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This document was produced for version @VERSION@ of @sc{gnu}
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@command{diction}.
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@end ifnottex
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@menu
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* Introduction:: Introduction.
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* Invoking:: Invoking @command{diction}; description of options.
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* Diagnostics:: Exit status returned by @command{diction}.
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* Reporting Bugs:: Reporting Bugs.
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* Concept Index:: A menu with all the topics in this manual.
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* Index:: A menu with all @command{diction} commands
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and command-line options.
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@end menu
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@c }}}
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@c {{{ Introduction
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@node Introduction
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@chapter Introduction
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@command{diction} finds all sentences in a document, that contain
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phrases from a database of frequently misused, bad or wordy diction.
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It further checks for double words. If no files are given, the document
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is read from standard input. Each found phrase is enclosed in @code{[ ]}
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(brackets). Suggestions and advice, if any, are printed headed by a right
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arrow @code{->}. A sentence is a sequence of words, that starts with a
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capitalised word and ends with a full stop, double colon, question mark
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or exclaimation mark. A single letter followed by a dot is considered an
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abbreviation, so it does not terminate a sentence. Various multi-letter
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abbreviations are recognized, they do not terminate a sentence as well.
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@command{diction} understands @command{cpp} @code{#line} lines for being
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able to give precise locations when printing sentences.
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There has been a diction command on old UNIX systems, which is now part
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of the AT&T DWB package. The original version was bound to roff by
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enforcing a call to @command{deroff}. This version is a reimplementation
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and not must run in a pipe with @command{deroff} if you want to process
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roff documents. Similarly, you can run it in a pipe with @command{dehtml}
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or @command{detex} to process HTML or TeX documents.
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See also:
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Cherry, L.L.; Vesterman, W.: Writing Tools-The STYLE and DICTION
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programs, Computer Science Technical Report 91, Bell Laboratories,
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Murray Hill, N.J. (1981), republished as part of the 4.4BSD User's
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Supplementary Documents by O'Reilly.
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Strunk, William: The elements of style, Ithaca, N.Y.: Priv. print., 1918,
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@url{http://coba.shsu.edu/help/strunk/}.
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@c }}}
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@c {{{ Invoking
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@node Invoking
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@chapter Invoking @command{diction}
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@table @samp
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@item -f @var{file}
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@itemx --file @var{file}
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@opindex -f
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@opindex --file
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@cindex user specified database
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Read the user specified database from the specified @var{file} in addition
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to the default database.
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@item -n
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@itemx --no-default-file
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@opindex -n
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@opindex --no-default-file
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@cindex not loading default database
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Do not read the default database, so only the user-specified database is used.
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@item -L @var{language}
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@itemx --language @var{language}
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@opindex -L
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@opindex --language
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@cindex set phrase file language
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Set the phrase file language.
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@item -h
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@itemx --help
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@opindex -h
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@opindex --help
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@cindex print usage message
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Print a short usage message.
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@itemx --version
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@opindex --version
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@cindex print version
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Print the version.
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@end table
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@section Environment Variables
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Diction's behaviour is affected by the following environment variables.
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@cindex environment variables
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@table @code
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@itemx LC_MESSAGES
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@vindex LC_MESSAGES
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@cindex language of messages
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@cindex message language
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@cindex national language support
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@cindex NLS
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@cindex translation of message language
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This variable specifies the @code{LC_MESSAGES} locale, which determines
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the language that @command{diction} uses for messages. American English
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is used if the environment variable is not set, or if the message catalog
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is not installed, or if @command{diction} was not compiled with national
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language support (@sc{nls}). The variable is further used as default
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for the phrase language.
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@end table
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@section Files
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@cindex files
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@table @code
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@itemx @DATADIR@/diction
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This directory contains phrase databases for various languages.
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@end table
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@c }}}
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@c {{{ Diagnostics
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@node Diagnostics
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@chapter Diagnostics
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If no errors occur, exit status is 0. On usage errors, 1 is returned.
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Termination caused by lack of memory is signalled by exit code 2.
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@c }}}
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@c {{{ Reporting Bugs
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@node Reporting Bugs
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@chapter Reporting Bugs
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If you find a bug in @command{diction}, please send electronic mail to
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@email{michael@@moria.de}. Include the version number, which you can find
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by running @command{diction --version}. Also include the hardware and
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operating system, the compiler used to compile `diction', a description
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of the bug behavior, and the input to `diction' that triggered the bug.
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@c }}}
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@c {{{ Author
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@node Author
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@chapter Author
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This program is GNU software, copyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Michael Haardt
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@email{michael@@moria.de}.
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The english phrase file contains contributions by Greg Lindahl
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@email{lindahl@@pbm.com}, Wil Baden, Gary D. Kline, Kimberly Hanks and
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Beth Morris.
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This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
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it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
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(at your option) any later version.
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This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
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but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
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GNU General Public License for more details.
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You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
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with this program. If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
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59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
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@c }}}
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@c {{{ Concept Index
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@page
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@node Concept Index
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@unnumbered Concept Index
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This is a general index of all issues discussed in this manual, with the
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exception of the @command{diction} command-line options.
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@printindex cp
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@c }}}
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@c {{{ Index
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@page
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@node Index
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@unnumbered Index
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This is an alphabetical list of all @command{diction} command-line
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options and environment variables.
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@printindex fn
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@contents
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@c }}}
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@bye
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