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- ;;06-13-85
- OUTLN.DOC v1.1
- 07/24/85
- Eric Gans
- French Dep't UCLA
- Los Angeles, CA 90024
-
- Version 1.1 update:
- Added skip-line toggle, force blank spaces; corrected a couple of
- messages.
-
-
- In these days of the "outline-processors" KAMAS and the
- public-domain TOUR, a friend showed me an older program called
- OUTLINE that has no fancy command-structure but is all the easier
- to use. Instead of trying (and probably failing) to be its own
- word-processor, it processes Wordstar source files of any length
- that you create using commands that can be learned in about 30
- seconds. The result of the processing is an outline in Wordstar
- DOC mode that can itself be edited directly. A great little
- program, but with a couple of drawbacks:
-
- 1. Allows only four outline levels, with no "0" level for
- ordinary text.
- 2. Limited number of entries at each level (39 for level 1,
- 26 for level 2, etc.)
- 2. The right margin cannot be more than 80 (although
- printers in compressed mode can handle 120).
- 3. The file takes up 16K on disk and, although not slow,
- could be a lot faster. (It uses so many PUSH's, POP's and DAD
- SP's that it must have been written in Forth.)
-
-
- OUTLN is a Z80 version of OUTLINE with the following
- improvements:
-
- 1. Allows 8 outline levels plus a "zero" level for straight
- text.
- 2. Allows right margins from 50-255
- 3. Creates a BAK file from your source (if you use the same
- name for source and destination); this can be disabled with a
- switch.
- 4. Occupies only 13 sectors (1.5 K) and is quite fast (30
- seconds for an 80K source file).
-
- Format: outln sourcefile [destfile] [/switches]
-
- If no destfile given, the same name will be used and the source
- filename changed to fn.BAK.
-
- Switches:
-
- B = no BAK file. (Use only if destfile name not entered.)
-
- L = don't skip extra lines between headings (default will skip 1
- line before headings @2-@8 and 2 before @0 and @1; with the L
- switch you skip one line before @0 and @1 and none otherwise)
-
- Mnn = Set right margin to nn. 50 <= nn <= 255. The default
- margin is 65, as in WS.
-
- The switches can be entered together in any order: /bm100 or
- /m100bl is acceptable
-
- Command structure:
-
- The outline levels (0-8) are entered following an "@". They
- may appear at any point in the text, although it is simpler to
- put them in the left margin. The outline remains in the order
- entered and is indented and numbered according to the level:
-
- @0 = text (flush left margin)
- @1 = roman caps I-CCLV = 255
- @2 = Caps A-Z The 27th @2 will produce A & will continue to wrap
- around until 255 letters have been reached.
- @3 = Numbers 1-255
- @4 = l.c. a-z as in @2
- @5 = roman l.c. i-cclv as in @1
- @6 = (Caps) (A)-(Z) as in @2
- @7 = (Numbers) (1)-(255) as in @3
- @8 = (l.c.) (a)-(z) as in @5
-
- @l or @L = skip line toggle. Switches between skip-line and no
- skip modes (see "L" switch description) within the file, allowing
- you to close up or spread out the outline at different points.
-
- Spaces, crlf's and "soft" hyphens will be compressed to a single
- space when the outline is output. To force spaces (in formatting
- tables, etc.), use the underline character "_" This will only
- work within the predefined margins.
-
- For either "@" or "_" as a literal, precede it by @: "@_@_@_"
- will produce "___"
-
- Thus:
- @1 OUTLN
- @2 ease of operation
- @3 small size
- @3 simple command structure
- @4 single format
- @4 follows text order
- @3 speed
- @2 flexibility
- @3 allows direct entry using WS @l
- @3 allows files of any length @l
- @3 margins 50-255
- @4 to format: 123 456
- @4 use:_______123_____456
- would appear (with the /l switch) as:
-
- I. OUTLN
- A. ease of operation
- 1. small size
- 2. simple command structure
- a. single format
- b. follows text order
- 3. speed
- B. flexibility
- 1. allows direct entry using WS
-
- 2. allows files of any length
- 3. margins 50-255
- a. to format: 123 456
- b. use: 123 456
-
- Notes:
-
- If you want to edit the outline with WS, you should reset the
- right margin with ^OR if you used the "M" switch. OUTLN does
- nothing about page breaks since WS creates its own and kills any
- others already in the file (i.e., converts 8ah to 0ah) on editing
- or printing.
-
- Like OUTLINE, OUTLN give you total freedom in changing levels.
- You can mix them in any order, although of course the traditional
- format moves downward 1 level at a time and never permits a
- single entry at any level (e.g., no "A" without a "B"). It
- seemed counterproductive to waste code on error checking when it
- might just be useful in some application to jump from level 1 to
- level 5 ... and in any case, the program is simple enough so that
- you will have no difficulty in applying these constraints
- yourself.
-
-
- The enhancements of v1.1 were made at the suggestion of Dick
- Sheresh of Chula Vista CA. If you have other suggestions for
- additional features/corrections I will do my best to include them
- in a future version.