# Embedded usage message, ascii terminal output, markup

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/embedded-usage-message-ascii-terminal-output-markup/142073>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [July 3, 2008, 7:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/embedded-usage-message-ascii-terminal-output-markup/142073 "2008-07-03T07:51:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![smprather](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@smprather](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/smprather)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 7:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/embedded-usage-message-ascii-terminal-output-markup/142073/1 "2008-07-03T07:51:50Z")

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Hi everybody–

I’m trying to do something I thought would be simple. I’m trying to do  
what Perl’s Pod::Usage can do. How do I embed a usage message and mark  
up a word I want to be bold, such that when it renders to a  
color/bold-capable ascii terminal, the word is actually in bold font?

I’ve tried using rdoc/usage with **tags** , but that renders like so:

_tags_

with surrounding asterisks instead of true bold font.

All documentation modules seem obsessed with html output. Has the good  
'ol unix terminal been forgotten by ruby? I’m confused. What have I  
missed?

Thanks,  
–Myles

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![smprather](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@smprather](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/smprather)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 7:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/embedded-usage-message-ascii-terminal-output-markup/142073/2 "2008-07-03T19:48:34Z")

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On 7/2/08, Stephen P. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> Hi everybody–
> 
> I’m trying to do something I thought would be simple. I’m trying to do  
> what Perl’s Pod::Usage can do. How do I embed a usage message and mark  
> up a word I want to be bold, such that when it renders to a  
> color/bold-capable ascii terminal, the word is actually in bold font?

how about: [ANSI escape code - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_sequences)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![smprather](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@smprather](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/smprather)\
**Post date:** [July 3, 2008, 8:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/embedded-usage-message-ascii-terminal-output-markup/142073/3 "2008-07-03T20:49:18Z")

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Adam S. wrote:

> On 7/2/08, Stephen P. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:
> 
> > Hi everybody–
> > 
> > I’m trying to do something I thought would be simple. I’m trying to do  
> > what Perl’s Pod::Usage can do. How do I embed a usage message and mark  
> > up a word I want to be bold, such that when it renders to a  
> > color/bold-capable ascii terminal, the word is actually in bold font?
> 
> how about: [ANSI escape code - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_sequences)

Yeh, I know how to do it manually. But I was looking, basically, for a  
clone of Perl’s Pod::Usage that would allow me to use markup tags to  
generate output that looks just like it came from man. Sounds like this  
doesn’t exist for Ruby. That’s a bit of a shock.