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Comments on text format programs. 22 March 1988 page 1 INTRODUCTION: ------------ There are at least three public domain (free) text formatting programs: ALPHATXT RNF13 ROFF4 They all have quite a bit in common, using ".dot" commands. They all can reformat, by "filling lines" as close as possible to your requested line width. They can quit at that point, or also justify to even mar- gins. Note: There is one additional program written by Irv Hoff that merely justifies to even margins. It makes no effort to reformat. It needs no ".dot commands". It is named "JUSTIFY.COM". It can be used with ASCII files produced by any normal text editor. JUSTIFYING: ---------- This is illustrated in the examples at the end of this review. Re- sults of these various programs are included: ALPHATXT - Rich Abbot's p.d. program, Turbo PASCAL JUSTIFY - Irv Hoff's program, assembly language RNF13 - C.B. Falconer's program, special PASCAL ROFF4 - Ernest Bergmann's program in 'C' WordStar 3.3 - Sold by MicroPro WordStar 4.0 - Sold by MicroPro SUMMARY OF EACH SYSTEM: ---------------------- WORDSTAR 4.0 - This is (by some margin) the least suitable of all. If the line needs only one fill blank it ALWAYS goes between the last two words. If two fill blanks are needed, the second one always goes between the first two words. If three are needed the third is always included at the right side. If the line had ended with something like this: xxxxxxxxxat the right side. If ^^ 2 blanks after a period. and you needed at least three fill blanks, WordStar 4.0 would always wind up with this: xxxxxxxxxat the right side. If ^^^^ 2 extra blanks added Comments on text format programs. 22 March 1988 page 2 Thus WordStar 4.0 always starts at the right side, then alternates blanks from right side, left side, right side left side, etc. It can (and often does) leave outlandish gaping holes at the end of sentences that correctly ter- inate with two spaces following the punctuation. WORDSTAR 3.3 - Marginally better than WordStar 4.0. If only one blank fill is needed, it alternates between the last two words and the first two. If two blanks are needed, it comes out identical to WordStar 4.0. If three are needed, the first line would have two at the right side and one at the left side, the second line would have two at the left side and one at the right side. Thus WordStar 3.3 is identical to WordStar 4.0 if there are an even number of fill characters needed, putting an equal number on both the left side and right side of the line. With an odd number, the greater number will al- ternate from right side to left side. RNF13 ROFF4 - These are a noticeable improvement over WordStar. However, if only one blank is needed, both do it just like WordStar 3.3. (First line puts the blank between the last two words, second line puts the blank between the first two words.) With two or more blanks, the first line puts them all on the right side, the second line puts them all on the left side, etc. Not very imaginative, but does look substantially better than WordStar, which can have some "holes" on every line on both sides, assuming for now that each line would require at least two blanks. Like WordStar, both of these programs can easily put two extra blanks in an area that already has two blanks: xxxxxxxxxat the right side. If ^^^^ 2 extra blanks added ALPHATXT - Very imaginative. Appears to use a random system that is difficult to predict, to insert blanks in the line. It is very likely the best of all such justifica- tion programs with the possible exception of Irv Hoff's JUSTIFY. I say "possible exception" as ALPHATXT also suffers from the same weakness all those already men- tioned have, of putting extra fill characters where two might already exist, easily making up to four at those locations: xxxxxxxxxat the right side. If ^^^^ 2 extra blanks added Comments on text format programs. 22 March 1988 page 3 NOTE: When formatting, WordStar and ALPHATXT leave the text as they found it, but at- tempt to fill the line as closely to the requested length as they can. Generally this works just fine but if reformatting files that have 'fill blanks' already in them from a prior justification, they do a very poor job. Not only are those re- tained but additional ones added to make the present line the correct width. The result can be rather grotesque, although it is fair to say few people would have any incentive to reformat such an exist- ing file. Other programs such as ROFF4, for example, make this quite easy to do. JUSTIFY - This program has several features that are some- what unusual. Instead of only using the right end, then the left end, it als uses the middle. In addition, it never puts any fill blanks between the first two words or the last two (uness they are the only locations left) as do all the other programs with the exception of the random fill routine used by ALPHATXT. With one fill character, JUSTIFY puts it in the middle of the first line, to the right side of the second line (but indented one word from the last two) and to the left side of the third line (but indented one word from the first two.) This keeps the extreme ends looking normal especially by using the center for every third line. This program also NEVER puts ANY additional fill blanks if two blanks already exist at that location. JUSTIFY is the only program known to have such a feature. It also has an additional unique feature where a line that ends a paragraph (and normally would thus not be justified) will still be justified IF it needs only 3 or fewer additional fill characters. The author of this program always thought it looked pretty silly to have nice even margins, but then see a line that was one or two columns shy of the others. Thus JUSTIFY has several features that minimize the "empty" areas most of the other programs often have: 1) Instead of alternating from extreme left and right ends of the line JUSTIFY alterates be- tween middle, right (indented 1 extra word) left (indented 1 extra word.) a) With this scheme, the extreme ends always look normal, quite differ- from WordStar. Comments on text format programs. 22 March 1988 page 4 2) Unlike all the others JUSTIFY never puts ad- ditional fill blanks in a location where two blanks already exist. All the rest could have up to four blanks in such locations, three being very common - even though many other areas on the same line only have one blank and could have been used for better appearance. 3) JUSTIFY is the only such program that fills out lines at the end of a paragraph that are within 3-4 columns of normal length. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NOTE: Perhaps a comment should be added that MicroPro (owners of WordStar) claim everybody using justification for even margins likely has a printer with microjustificaiton any- way, so "who cares" what the CRT display looks like? Well they are wrong. Not everybody makes a printed copy of all the files they look at, in addition to which a lot of non-professional computer owners do not have printers with microjustification. Consequently, having a program that can justify to even margins in the least obvious manner is of immediate in- terest to at least a portion of computer users. To this end, the JUSTIFY program likely succeeds better than pehaps any other mentioned in this review. It might be fair to mention at this time that NO method of obtaining even margins by merely adding extra "fill blanks" here and there can really give comparable results to the type of results you see in magazines or newspapers. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Comments on text format programs. 22 March 1988 page 5 Review so far: ------------- Sec. 1 discussed the results obtained from the examples which are in- cluded at the end of this review. It had additional comments regarding handling areas where two blanks already exist, for punctuation after end of sentences. Sec. 2 (this section) will discuss some of the various advantages and disadvantages of the format programs. These comments will only involve the topics the author has observed - many features of the programs not having been evaluated at this time. (Such as underlining, footnotes, subscripts, etc.) Sec. 3 has examples of the way various word processors justify ASCII text. Each program was run for 1, 2 and then 3 fill characters. ALPHATXT - by Rich Abbott. Sometimes called ALPHAT20. Easy program to use, but needs a lot of "hand-holding". Re- ires a new dot command at the completion of each para- graph, even for a blank line. This does give the author complete control of the program. Defaults to column 5 for the left margin and column 75. There is no convenient method of permanently changing the default parameters. In this day and age, where you can easily set the margins on the printer to anything you like, "nobody" wants a permanent default to some indented column. When reformatting, it leaves all blanks as they origi- nall appeared, making the program totally worthless for reformatting a WordStar file to a different line length, for example. It never heard of two blanks after punctuation to end a sentence. As previously mentioned, when reformatting it does not change any existing text, so if there was one blank after a period, it retains that one blank. If it had four blanks from a previous format, it would keep the four blanks. This makes the program essentially worthless (to this reviewer) for re-format purposes. It has a serious, major flaw in that it cannot recognize lines that are already the correct length. It thinks such lines are one column too long and reformats them. Thus every line it processes winds up with at least one fill character. (ROFF4 has a comparable problem, also, when using the justify mode on lines already the desired length.) Comments on text format programs. 22 March 1988 page 6 Rich Abbot, the author, assures me this was fixed in the commercial version sold by Cranberry Software Tools for $35. (That includes a text editor and a large spelling dictionary. The package is available for either CP/M or for MS-DOS.) It also leaves a trailing blank at the end of all text lines, ala WordStar and RNF13. There are two .DOC files included in the ALPHAT20.LBR. One is the "before", showing all the ".dot" commands and the other shows the "after" and is ready for printing. This tutorial and the .DOC file are excellent and are perhaps the best features of the program. Other word processor programs should include similar "how to do it" files of the "before and after" variety. RNF13 - by Charles Falconer, professor of computer science, Yale University. This is a very interesting program. VERY slow. It took 42 minutes to process a 140k file that took ROFF4 9-1/2 minutes. It is written in Prof. Falconer's own special version of PASCAL. (ROFF4 was written in 'C'.) "RNF" likely is another name for the UNIX "RUNOFF" format program from which it was adapted. It is easily the most sophisticated of the various for- mat programs, offering all sorts of .dot commands, many of which the typical user may never attempt to incorpor- ate. It has an excellent "progress" reporting system showing the current page and line number it is working on. It has perhaps the finest error-reporting system of any program I have ever used. Most such programs only look in the first column for a ".dot" command. RNF13 seems to look ANYWHERE, which seems quite unfortunate. On the lengthy program that took 42 minutes, some 250 errors were posted, a vast ma- jority because things like " .COM file" or " .LBR file", etc. appeared quite often in the body of the text. The errors are printed in a most impressive manner, showing the page, line number, actual line of text, an arrow pointing to the exact character that caused the error, and then a description of the error. However, it is a nuisance not to be able to use "(space).COM", etc. This program even barfed with things like: INDEX ................ pg 22 as it thought the (space).... was some sort of ".dot" command. One does not expect to see errors for this sort of text. Comments on text format programs. 22 March 1988 page 7 RNF13 does an outstanding job of re-formatting programs. It puts two spaces after punctuation to end a sentence. something ALPHATXT and WordStar never heard of. If for some reason you don't WANT to do this, there is a ".dot" command you can use wherever you like, in the text, to preserve a location where just one blank after a period might be preferred, such as: Mr. Alfred Jones, etc. Of- fering this dot command does present a tremendous amount of versatility in an area neither ALPHATXT nor WordStar would even know what you were talking about... This program does an excellent job of reformatting text that is indented. Some people indent paragraphs - it will reformat those to non-indented. Some text has sec- tions that are indentend. It will reformat those to the left margin unless you include a ".dot" command to leave the indent area intact. The program does leave a trailing space on all text lines, a minor nuisance. Unlike ROFF4 and ALPHATXT, it recognizes lines already the proper length, so results are what you expect - other than a line justified to 72 columns is really 73 columns long, as each line has the unwanted trailing space that is not observed, but pres- ent. Thus asking for justified text 79 columns long could give double line feeds on normal 80 column dis- plays with auto line-wrap. The program is by far the most awkward to use, since it requires a special runtime program in addition. It is a nuisance insuring both programs are present and makes it difficult to use "flow control" while on a different d/u. The following method has to be used, intact, else the system might lock up, requiring a cold boot to re- gain control: B>RUNPCD RNF (HELLO.TXT, HELLO.DOC) <ret> The actual justification scheme seems identical with that of ROFF4 other than RNF13 can recognize a line al- ready the correct length while ROFF4 (and ALPHATXT) can- not. Once underway, there is no method (known to thie review- er) to halt the program other than to cold reboot the computer. (Then manually erase the partially completed output file.) This is considered a most important over- sight. Comments on text format programs. 22 March 1988 page 8 ROFF4 - by Ernest Bergmann in 1983. Written in 'C', it is much faster than either RNF13 or ALPHATXT. The program has some very convenient features as well as some annoying things. The 'C' source code is included, although it is difficult even for a good 'C' programmer to follow the progression of the program. For instance, it puts out CR,CR,CR,LF at the end of nearly all text lines. So far, none of the the people I have talked to have any idea how to eliminate this unusual feature. When reformatting, it puts two spaces after exclamation marks, question marks, colons and even semicolons. It handles periods at the end of a sentence in a most per- plexing manner - if you used one blank after a period, it retains just that one blank. If you used two blanks, it will keep a maximum of two blanks. (If reformatting WordStar files which might have three and even four blanks after an occasional period, it will use a maximum of two.) NOTE: We have a special version of ROFF4 now which puts only one blank after a semicolon and which puts two blanks after any period that ends a sentence. It also defaults to format 72 actual columns, matching JUSTIFY.COM. ROFF4 is the easiest format program to use, by some wide margin. If the line is indented, it leaves the line in- dented with no special ".dot" command. (On the other hand it cannot reformat text all of which may be indent- ed in a given area, RNF13, etc. would be needed for this purpose.) It cannot recognize a line already the correct width. If used to reformat without justification, it is off one column on the right margin counter. For instance you want lines of up to 72 characters, but no more. You must set the right margin command to 73 in this case. However, if you want to reformat and justify both, then you would set it to 72, but now each line will be basi- cally 72 with one fill blank added somewhere to make it 72. Nuisance. This is similar to ALPHATXT. ROFF4 does not leave trailing spaces at the end of text lines, like RNF13 and ALPHATXT (and WordStar), though. It can normally be aborted with a CTL-C. It is easy to use. If paragraphs are indented, the re- format will retain the original indentation without any special paragraph commands such as the ".pp" required by all the other programs. You can intentionally indent paragraphs that were not originally indented, with an ".in" command. Comments on text format programs. 22 March 1988 page 9 Centering a group of lines is ridiculously simple. If you have 8-10-15 lines to center you needn't bother with counting them or using a separate centering command for each line. Just use: ".ce 100" on the line ahead of the first line to be centered, then move all the lines to start in the first column. After the last one, type: ".ce 0" and it will stop centering. This makes centering a group of lines so simple to accomplish, you may indeed use this feature more than you normally otherwise might. (ALPHATXT requires a separeate ".ce ;(text)" for each line that is to centered.) It is very easy to run. Say you have a program which is named HELLO.TXT and you want to format to HELLO.DOC: B>ROFF4 HELLO.TXT >HELLO.DOC The '>' tells the program to generate a new disk file of that name. If you merely want to look at the results on the CRT, just use: B>ROFF4 HELLO.TXT or if you wish to see the results on the CRT while it is making a disk file: B>ROFF4 HELLO.TXT +>HELLO.DOC You can also recieve the output on the printer, in addi- tion to either of the other possibilities. SUMMARY - ROFF4, with the special version, is by some margin the easiest of the format programs to use. That is, it requires far less ".dot" commands than any other comparable program. It still has the problem of not re- cognizing lines already of the proper length, but if you are planning to only use it for reformatting existing text files (without justification), it's likely the most convenient of all the programs to use, by some margin. The special version (developed by Norman Beeler at this reviewer's request) makes this program very simple to use. It defaults to: .nf - does not justify .fi - does fill lines to maximum lenth .rm 73 - right magin to 72 columns (counter is off one column when filling) .ow 73 - fills headers, etc., to same length Comments on text format programs. 22 March 1988 page 10 CONCLUSION: ---------- These comments do not represent any sort of exhaustive comparison or analysis of the programs. They only represent intial impressions this reviewer wanted to jot down while fresh in mind. As soon as the programs were used the first time, they all seemed to have glaring de- ficiencies in the methods used to add fill blanks to justify for even margins. Therefore the reviewer plans to use them just to reformat existing ASCII text files and will use the JUSTIFY program to obtain even margins. It took JUSTIFY 46 seconds to add fill characters to justify the 144k program that it took RNF13 42 minutes to reformat. The next step might be to write ".dot" command into JUSTIFY so it could become a self-standing format program. This is quite unlikely to ever happen, since nearly all printers (regardless of cost) will soon have microjustification and since we have only discussed CP/M programs. Fewer people each year are even using CP/M. Most of those who do, have expressed minimal interest in a separate format program from WordStar which they have been using since getting on CP/M. Thus JUSTIFY and perhaps even ROFF4, etc. are such speciality pro- grams only a nominal few readers will be interested enough in this topic to even read these notes. This is perhaps proven by the difficulty I had in even obtaining a copy of the RNF13 program. Even after I found such a program existed, it was some time before I found somebody near Yale University that was able to find a copy of the free program. Obviously only a few RCPM systems in the country even carry ROFF4, ALPHAT20 and/or RNF13. I do not anticipate JUSTIFY will receive widespread distribution or interest, when released. However as an available utility program it does serve a worthwhile purpose for those who do not care for the method WordStar uses for justification of ASCII text files. to anyone interested. - Irv Hoff (415) 948-2166 voice (415) 948-2512 PRACSA RCPM ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Comments on text format programs. 22 March 1988 page 11 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Samples of various format programs, showing the method they use to justify consecutive, identical lines, when pulling such lines to 1, 2 or 3 extra columns. Note only Irv's pro- gram fills the last line out to the requested length, the others assume the last line is the end of a paragraph and leave it whatever it was, originally. Irv's program does that also, if the line is not within 3-4 columns of normal length, otherwise it is also left alone. Irv's program is the only one that uses the center area on a normal rotation basis. You can readily see that WordStar 3.3 does a poor job, but WordStar 4.0 does a just plain lousy job of justification. On even number of fills needed, both are identical. Note: All these programs are free, except for WordStar. All can be found on the PRACSA RCPM. (415) 948-2513. ------------- Irv's program, +1 hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello Irv's program, +2 hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello Irv's program, +3 hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello ------------- Comments on text format programs. 22 March 1988 page 12 ALPHATXT +1 hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello ALPHATXT +2 hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello ALPHATXT +3 hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello ------------- RNF13 +1 hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello RNF13 +2 hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello Comments on text format programs. 22 March 1988 page 13 RNF13 +3 hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello --------------- ROFF4 +1 hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello ROFF4 +2 hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello ROFF4 +3 hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello WordStar 3.3 +1 hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello ------------- Comments on text format programs. 22 March 1988 page 14 WordStar 3.3 +2 hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello WordStar 3.3 +3 hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello --------------- WordStar 4.0 +1 hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello WordStar 4.0 +2 hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello WordStar 4.0 +3 hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello hello --------------- Comments on text format programs. 22 March 1988 page 15 This example was used for each of the four format programs. It clearly shows how the various programs handle text with 1 space after the end of a sentence and how they handle 2 or more. RNF13 and the special version of ROFF4 do an ideal job in this regard. Both ALPHATXT and WordStar use whatever the text already had. They are basically worthless with regard to reformatting existing text that may already be justified i.e., which has fill characters that would need to be removed. This is a small format test. Do you think it will work? Just checking to see how it may handle punctuation! Some of these have one space; some have two. A good format program should put two spaces after a period to end a sentence. We'll put the other programs to work shortly, ok? Should tell us what; we want to know. Bye for now. Roger and out. --------------- ALPHATXT This is a small format test Do you think it will work? Just checking to see how it may handle punctuation! Some of these have one space; some have two. A good format program should put two spaces after a period to end a sentence. We'll put the other programs to work shortly, ok? Should tell us what; we want to know. Bye for now. Roger and out. --------------- RNF13 This is a small format test. Do you think it will work? Just checking to see how it may handle punctuation! Some of these have one space; some have two. A good format program should put two spaces after a period to end a sentence. We'll put the other programs to work shortly, ok? Should tell us what; we want to know. Bye for now. Roger and out. --------------- Comments on text format programs. 22 March 1988 page 16 ROFF4 This is a small format test. Do you think it will work? Just checking to see how it may handle punctuation! Some of these have one space; some have two. A good format program should put two spaces after a period to end a sentence. We'll put the other programs to work shortly, ok? Should tell us what; we want to know. Bye for now. Roger and out. --------------- WORDSTAR 4.0 This is a small format test. Do you think it will work? Just checking to see how it may handle punctuation! Some of these have one space; some have two. A good format program should put two spaces after a period to end a sentence. We'll put the other programs to work shortly, ok? Should tell us what; we want to know. Bye for now. Roger and out. Note: Before WordStar could be used on the sample text, we had to convert the "hard CR" char- acters to "soft CR" by changing them to 8D. When the program was then run through Word- Star it had: 72 high bits set 9 trailing spaces 5 soft CR's - end -