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- .re ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- .remark THIS IS A REMARK LINE.
- .remark Remarks are left as is and are useful for
- .remark the writer of the document.
- .re ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- .in 10 * set the normal left indent at column 10
- .rm 70 * set the right margin at column 70
- .sf * justify by space filling lines
- .he ' FORMAT (Text Output Processor) description
- .fo ' Page #
- .sp 3 * space 3 lines
- .ce 2 * center the next two lines
- The FORMAT text processor
- -------------------------
- .ti +4 * set a temporary indent 4 columns to the right of indent
- FORMAT is a text processing system. It is invoked as:
- .sp 2
- FORMAT <infile name> <outfile name>
- .sp 2
- This means accept text with imbedded commands from file name
- <input-file> and send the processed text to <output-file>. These files
- are normally CP/M disk files however if the output file is specified
- to be: LST: or CON: then the output is sent to the List device
- (printer), or the Console device (crt) respectively.
- An example invocation is:
- .sp 2
- FORMAT MYLETTER CON:
- .sp 2
- .ti +4
- The processor accepts several commands to permit control of margins,
- spacing, indentation, centering, underlining, and to simply pass
- thru text. In addition it allows both a header title at the beginning
- of each page and a footer title at the bottom of each page. These both
- default to an empty line.
-
- .ti + 4 * NOTE * the plus sign is spaced from the number 4 *
- Each command consists of 3 characters in the leftmost column and
- (in most cases) an optional parameter. Parameters are strings
- in the case of header and footer titles and numbers in all other
- cases.
-
- .ti +4
- In the header and footer strings, leading spaces are ignored
- and all occurrences of # are replaced in the output text
- by the current page number. If the first non space or tab
- character in a header or footer string is " or ' it will be
- discarded, this is a means to allow leading spaces in the string
- since all spaces after the " or ' are significant.
- .bp
- .ti +4
- The numeric parameters can be in one of two forms,
- an absolute number sets the associated to that number or if
- out of legal range, to its limit. A signed (+ or -) number
- sets the parameter to its current value + or - the value of the
- number. This allows setting for example a paragraph indent
- margin to be inset from the normal indent without being required
- to remember where the current indent is set.
-
- .ti +4
- The default mode is "fill" i.e. fit as many words as possible
- on a line to fill out the line width, however any input lines of
- text which start with space or tab maintain that number of
- columns of leading space. In any case these lines with leading
- whitespace cause a "break" i.e. they cause the following text to
- begin on a new line. Several commands also cause a break (see
- table of defined commands).
-
- .ti +4
- In the function categories the lines referred to in centering
- and underlining are input lines, therefore
- to cause a single word to be underlined, for instance, simply
- place it on a separate input line. Likewise, to avoid the need
- to count lines, centering and underlining may be made continous
- by setting the number of lines to something huge
- e.g. 4000 until it is wished to disable them again at which
- point specifing 0 will cause an immediate disable.
-
- .ti +4
- The FORMAT program does not recognize the tab character (ASCII
- 9), therefore, use the PIP program to expand tabs in the
- original text before running it through FORMAT. For example to
- expand tabs to every eighth column in the file OLDLTR execute
- the following:
-
- PIP NEWLRT=OLDLTR[T8]
-
- The file NEWLRT is now ready to be processed by FORMAT. Of
- course since you have the source code to the Pascal version of
- FORMAT you could also incorporate the ability to have FORMAT
- expand tabs as it reads the input file.
- .bp
- .remark +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- .sp 2
- .ce 2
- List of defined commands
- ------------------------
- .sp 4
- .nf * justify off
- .rem
- .rem
- Command Function Default Break
- ------- -------- ------- -----
- .bp n begin page numbered n n = +1 yes
- .br cause a line break yes
- .ce n center the next n lines n = 1 yes
- .fi enable line filling yes
- .sf justify by space filling yes
- .nf justify off yes
- .fo s set footer title to s empty no
- .he s set header title to s empty no
- .in n indent n spaces from n = 0 no
- from left margin.
- .ti n set temporary indent to n n = 0 yes
- .rm n set right margin to n n = 60 no
- .ls n set line spacing to n n = 1 no
- .pl n set page length to n lines n = 66 no
- .sp n space n lines n = 1 yes
- .ul n underline the next n lines n = 1 yes
- .rem
- .rem
- .sp 2
- .ti -6
- note:
- underlining works only for printers which can back up the print
- head one char position at a time.
- .bk
-