usr/src/games/quiz/quiz.6

.\" Copyright (c) 1991, 1993
.\"     The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
.\" Jim R. Oldroyd at The Instruction Set.
.\"
.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff%
.\"
.\"     @(#)quiz.6      8.1 (Berkeley) %G%
.\"
.Dd
.Dt QUIZ 6
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm quiz
.Nd random knowledge tests
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm quiz
.Op Fl t
.Op Fl i Ar file
.Op Ar question answer
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm quiz
utility tests your knowledge of random facts.
It has a database of subjects from which you can choose.
With no arguments,
.Nm quiz
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 alternate index file.
.El
.Pp
Subjects are divided into categories.
You can pick any two categories from the same subject.
.Nm Quiz
will ask questions from the first category and it expects answers from
the second category.
For example, the command ``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 ``quiz killer victim'' works the
other way around.
.Pp
If you get the answer wrong,
.Nm quiz
lets you try again.
To see the right answer, enter a blank line.
.Sh "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
alternate 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 quiz
will refrain from asking it.
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /usr/share/games/quiz.db -compact
.It Pa /usr/share/games/quiz.db
The default index and data files.
.El
.Sh BUGS
.Nm Quiz
is pretty cynical about certain subjects.