bsdgames/quiz/quiz.6.in

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.\" Copyright (c) 1991, 1993
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.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
.\" Jim R. Oldroyd at The Instruction Set.
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.\"	@(#)quiz.6	8.1 (Berkeley) 5/31/93
.\"
.Dd May 31, 1993
.Dt QUIZ 6
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm quiz
.Nd random knowledge tests
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl t
.Op Fl i Ar file
.Op Ar question answer
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
utility tests your knowledge of random facts.
It has a database of subjects from which you can choose.
With no arguments,
.Nm
displays the list of available subjects.
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Fl t
Use tutorial mode, in which questions are repeated later if you didn't get
them right the first time, and new questions are presented less frequently
to help you learn the older ones.
.It Fl i
Specify an alternative index file.
.El
.Pp
Subjects are divided into categories.
You can pick any two categories from the same subject.
.Nm
will ask questions from the first category and it expects answers from
the second category.
For example, the command
.Dq quiz victim killer
asks questions which are the names of victims, and expects you to answer
with the cause of their untimely demise, whereas the command
.Dq quiz killer victim
works the other way around.
.Pp
If you get the answer wrong,
.Nm
lets you try again.
To see the right answer, enter a blank line.
.Ss Index and Data File Syntax
The index and data files have a similar syntax.
Lines in them consist of several categories separated by colons.
The categories are regular expressions formed using the following
meta-characters:
.sp
.Bl -tag -width "pat|pat" -compact -offset indent
.It pat|pat
alternative patterns
.It {pat}
optional pattern
.It [pat]
delimiters, as in pat[pat|pat]pat
.El
.Pp
In an index file, each line represents a subject.
The first category in each subject is the pathname of the data file for
the subject.
The remaining categories are regular expressions for the titles of each
category in the subject.
.Pp
In data files, each line represents a question/answer set.
Each category is the information for the question/answer for that category.
.Pp
The backslash character (``\e'') is used to quote syntactically significant
characters, or at the end of a line to signify that a continuation line
follows.
.Pp
If either a question or its answer is empty,
.Nm
will refrain from asking it.
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width @quiz_dir@ -compact
.It Pa @quiz_dir@
The default index and data files.
.El
.Sh BUGS
.Nm
is pretty cynical about certain subjects.