Shareware Overload/ShartewareOverload.cdr/wp/rubicon5.zip/MANUAL.2

Text File | 1989-11-08 | 23KB | 513 lines

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               |  Section 2: OPERATION AND STRUCTURE  |
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CONTENTS

2.1 General Description
2.2 Operating Environment
2.3 Outline of Operating Procedure
2.4 Run-Time Options
2.5 Tag Command Syntax
2.6 Units of Measurement
2.7 "Include" Files
2.8 Default Style Sheet: SETUP.TAG
2.9 Order of Processing Text and Instructions
2.10 "Push" and "Pop"

2.1 GENERAL DESCRIPTION

The Publisher is a computer software product which performs
functions equivalent to the traditional task of typesetting: that
is, the formatting and arrangement in type, page by page, of written
text, in the page layouts, type fonts, etc., chosen by the user.

The Publisher consists of two main parts: (1) a typesetting language
consisting of "tags" (instructions) concerning page layout, font
selection, etc., which can be inserted by the user at appropriate
locations in a computer text file; and (2) an executable "batch
processor" program which, upon command, accepts a computer text file
including such tag instructions, interprets and acts on the tags, and
transmits the results directly to a printer (or, optionally, to a disk
file for later transmission to the printer).

The Publisher is both user-friendly and sophisticated. The novice,
or casual user, who has no detailed technical knowledge of typesetting
techniques, and is familiar with only the most basic of the Publisher's
instruction tags, can copy or adapt the examples given later in this
Manual to generate documents of professional appearance in a variety
of single- and multi-column layouts and formats. In the hands of a
more knowledgeable user, the Publisher is capable of producing work
equivalent to the finest conventional typesetting, as found in books
and magazines of high quality.

2.2 OPERATING ENVIRONMENT

COMPUTER

The Publisher supports the IBM personal computers (PC/XT, PC/AT or PS/2)
and other compatible microcomputers. If a printer using soft fonts is
employed, the computer should have sufficient hard disk space for
storage of the soft fonts. The short procedure for installing the
Publisher on such a computer has been explained in Section 1.
More complete information about installation is given in the Appendix.

OPERATING SYSTEM

The Publisher supports the MS-DOS operating system, version 2.1 or
newer.

PRINTER

The Publisher supports the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet printer, printers
which are set up to emulate a LaserJet, and also supports Postscript
devices. The model of printer being used is specified by the instruction
tag <model=>; see the Appendix.

PHOTO TYPESETTER

The Publisher supports any Postscript device.

FONTS SUPPORTED

The Publisher supports a variety of fonts: the available selection
depends on the type of printer (or other output device) being used.

For LaserJet printers, the Rubicon fonts supplied with the Publisher,
namely the Trajan (serif) and Renner (sans serif) families, are supported.
The Publisher also supports the following Hewlett Packard families
of fonts, which the user may already own or may acquire: Courier, Line
Printer, Times Roman, and Helvetica. Installation procedures to make
these Hewlett Packard fonts accessible to the Publisher are given in
the Appendix.

For Postscript devices, the 35 standard Postscript fonts are supported,
using Adobe font names.

TEXT INPUT

For efficient use of the Publisher, the available software should
include a good text editor or word processor capable of producing and
editing standard ASCII text files. Most well-known MS-DOS based word
processors will produce standard ASCII files, either in normal operation
or in an available optional mode of operation.

2.3 OUTLINE OF OPERATING PROCEDURE

The Publisher is designed for the batch processing of ASCII-format text
files. Accordingly, the first step in publishing a piece of text (or
"document"), is to produce or obtain the desired text in the form of a
plain ASCII text file.

Text files are, of course, created on computers, using text editing,
word processing, or other software. If a text file is being created for
the purpose of eventual publication using the Publisher, it should be
created in plain ASCII format. If a document to be published is
contained in a text file originally created for some other purpose, it
may or may not be a plain ASCII file, depending on the text editor
originally used to create it, and on whether it includes any
enhancements, such as bolding, underlining or italics, supported by the
original text editor. Fortunately, simple procedures are usually
available to convert non-ASCII word processor text files to ASCII
format, and to locate and delete embedded commands, etc., used by the
original word processor.

Once this has been done, the plain ASCII text file containing the
document is further edited, using the text editor mentioned above,
to insert the embedded instructions (known as tags) required to set
up the desired page layout and format, and to implement all desired
font changes and enhancements.

A file ready for publication will typically begin with one or both
of: (1) A set of tags setting up page layout and format, running headers
and footers, the page numbering scheme, etc.; or (2) An <include> tag
implementing a "style sheet", i.e. a collection of tags setting up page
layout and format, running headers and footers, the page numbering
scheme, etc., which has been previously prepared and stored in a
separate file, so that it can be utilized in any desired document file
without being repeated each time.

After this, the text will appear, with tags inserted at appropriate
locations to implement font changes, subscripts, superscripts, and
other such features.

When the document file is believed to be ready for publication, it
is saved to disk in its final form.  The user then exits from the
word-processing software to the operating system, changes to the
directory on which the publisher has been installed (if not already
there), and invokes the Publisher by the command PUB.

EXAMPLE: The document file is named SPECIMEN.TXT, and is located on a
directory named WORK on Drive C. The Publisher is installed in the
directory RUBICON on Drive C [standard setup].  After reaching the
operating system prompt "C>", the command syntax to publish the document
would be:
CD\RUBICON [return]
PUB \WORK\SPECIMEN.TXT [return]

NOTE: BE PATIENT! The Publisher takes a significant amount of time to
format and print a page, especially when fonts are being downloaded.  The
time required depends on your hardware setup, the number of different fonts
used in your document, etc., but a MINIMUM processing time of BETWEEN ONE
AND TWO MINUTES PER PAGE should be expected. During much of this processing
time, the Publisher may not appear to be doing anything.  If you are
worried that the program may not really be running, we suggest that you
make use of the run-time switch "/T" to invoke the "Tracers" option, as
described below in Section 2.4.

The output from the Publisher ordinarily goes directly to a laser printer,
which produces a hard copy of the document in the layout, format, etc.
specified by the tags in the file. (Optionally, the output can be stored in
a disk file for later transmission to the printer, as described under
"Run-Time Options".)

Ideally, this concludes the publication process. In practice, of course, a
careful proofreading of the hard copy will often reveal previously-
undetected errors or omissions in the text, or in the typesetting, or both.
These may be corrected by retrieving the document file, making the
necessary changes, saving it to disk in its amended form, and running it
through the Publisher again to produce an amended version of the hard copy.
This process may be repeated as necessary, until a satisfactory result is
obtained. The degree of perfection which is considered to be satisfactory,
and the number of proofs needed to attain the same, will of course depend
on such factors as the nature and purpose of the document, and its length
and complexity.

2.4 RUN-TIME OPTIONS

In addition to the normal operating mode described above, the program
can be instructed to implement certain options, by means of "switches"
added to the Publisher command line. The following switches are
currently available:

/D   Print to Disk. This option directs the Publisher not to send its
output directly to the printer, but rather to send it to the computer's
disk for storage, under the file name PUB.PRN

For example, entering the command:

PUB \WORK\SPECIMEN.TXT /D [Return]

will cause the Publisher to process the file SPECIMEN.TXT from the
directory WORK and store the resulting formatted version on disk under
the file name PUB.PRN. The file thus stored can be printed later by
entering the command:

COPY PUB.PRN PRN /B [Return]

That is, "copy the file PUB.PRN to the printer". The /B is the MS-DOS
"binary" option for printing files containing nontextual binary codes.

/T   Tracers. This option causes the Publisher to take each line of
output text, and echo (trace) it to the screen, as it is being printed.
This permits the user to preview the line breaks, and follow the
progress of the line formatting. Other information is also displayed on
the screen, for example a listing of all run-time switches which have
been selected, and a report of each font being downloaded to the
printer. The command syntax to invoke this option is

PUB \WORK\SPECIMEN.TXT /T [Return]

In general, this option enables the user to watch what the program is
doing while it is actually running.

/L    Load Font. This option enables the automatic font downloading
function. It is effective for LaserJet printers, but does not apply to
Postscript devices. If selected, the Publisher automatically deletes all
soft fonts from the printer's memory before printing the file, and then
downloads each soft font used in the document, as it is required. The
command syntax to invoke this option is

PUB \WORK\SPECIMEN.TXT /L [Return]

This option may also be selected by inserting the instruction tag
<download=1> at the beginning of the document file being typeset. Note
that if either of the run-time switches /L or /X is used, any
<download=> tag in the document file will be disregarded.

/X    Cancel Load. This option disables the automatic font downloading
function; that is, the Publisher will not delete any soft fonts from the
printer's memory, nor will it download any fonts to the printer. If
selected, the only available fonts will be those which are resident in
the printer, or have previously been downloaded and not deleted. The
command syntax to invoke this option is

PUB \WORK\SPECIMEN.TXT /X [Return]

The automatic deletion of all soft fonts from the printer's memory
before printing a file, and subsequent downloading of each soft font
used in the document, is a lengthy process, particularly if numerous
fonts are used. If several successive drafts of the same document, or a
series of documents each requiring the same group of fonts, are being
formatted and printed, this results in the repeated deleting and then
downloading of the same group of fonts, which is obviously inefficient
and a waste of time. To avoid this, the /X option may be invoked after
the first document in the series has been processed, that is, for the
second and all subsequent drafts or documents in the series. Of course,
this option will work successfully only if the group of soft fonts being
used is small enough (or the printer's memory large enough) that the
printer can store the whole group in memory at the same time.

This option may also be selected by inserting the instruction tag
<download=0> at the beginning of the document file being typeset. Note
that if either of the run-time switches /L or /X is used, any
<download=> tag in the document file will be disregarded.

/num    Multiple copies. Selecting this option causes the printer to
print "num" copies of each page of the document, where "num" is an
integer (that is, a whole number) in the range of 1 to 99. For example,
entering the command

PUB \WORK\SPECIMEN.TXT /7 [Return]

will cause the printer to print 7 copies of each page of the file
SPECIMEN.TXT. After a file is printed the formatter automatically resets
itself, and the attached printer, to the default state of single copy
printing.

2.5 TAG COMMAND SYNTAX

As previously explained, a major component of the Publisher
is a typsetting language, in the form of instruction tags which can
be inserted into an ordinary text file using any suitable text editor.
When such a file is submitted to the Publisher's batch processor program,
it prints the file using the fonts, format and page layout specified
by these tags.

The tags are identified, i.e. delimited from the rest of the text, by
being enclosed between a left-chevron "<" and a right-chevron ">", as
follows: <Tag>. The first element of any tag is a "keyword", which may
be an abbreviation of one or more letters.

Some tags consist of nothing but the keyword. EXAMPLE: <RC> Rag
Center (Center each line of type on the page, so that both left and
right margins are "ragged").

Some tags require other elements, such as parameter names and values,
and designations of units, to give them meaning.  EXAMPLE: the tag
<margin> means nothing by itself, but the tag
<margin top=20mm left=15mm bottom=230mm right=190mm>
defines the sizes in millimeters of the top, left, bottom and right
margins which form the limits of the page interior.

There are three basic kinds of tags: isolated keywords, keywords with
a single parameter, and keywords with one or more sub-parameters.
Examples of each are, respectively:

<XR> Cancel Rag

<Times10B> Times 10 point bold

<underline thick=2pt descent=1pt> Underline thickness and descent

SYNTAX FLEXIBILITY

Tag keywords may be entered in upper or lower case, i.e. the tags
<XR> and <xr> represent the same instruction. Subparameters are optional,
and may be specified in any order. This margin tag is equivalent to
the one just above:
<margin bottom=230mm right=190mm top=20mm left=15mm>

This margin tag is permissible:
<margin bottom=230mm right=190mm>

PARAMETER TYPES

Parameter input types may be single characters, character strings
(like the name of a file), or integers (like the number 10). "Rational
numbers", that is "floating point decimal numbers" like 2.664 are
also used; these will be referred to simply as "numbers", as opposed
to integers.

The various tags included in the Publisher's typsetting language, and
their functions, are listed in Section 3 of this manual.

PUNCTUATION OF INSTRUCTIONS

Lines in a document or instruction file which consist entirely of
instruction tags, must normally be punctuated by means of Quad tags
at the end of each such line, to prevent unwanted blank lines and
spaces from appearing in the published document, or other undesirable
results. The tag most commonly used for this purpose is:

<QZ> Quad left, zero advance.

This is particularly important in lines of instruction tags located in
the initialization sequence, or in files INCLUDED in the "initialization
sequence" (the basic setup and format instructions which must be given
to the Publisher at the start of processing) , since the initialization
sequence MUST NOT CONTAIN ANY PRINTABLE CHARACTERS. (To the computer, a
blank space is a printable character: ASCII character number 32.)

The following Publisher tags are classed as DIRECTIVES and do not
require Quad tags for punctuation.

<include>

<header>

<footer>

<bullets>

<list>

<end>

Unlike other tags, A DIRECTIVE MUST APPEAR BY ITSELF ON A SEPARATE LINE.
That is, there should be no other material whatsoever on the same input
line as the directive tag, either before or after it.

2.6 UNITS OF MEASUREMENT

Each parameter representing a linear measure or distance, such as margin
width or column width, has a default unit (normally the "dot", 1/300
inch) which will be understood if no other unit is specified. For
example, the tag <margin top=150> will be understood by the Publisher
as specifying a top margin of 150 dots, that is, one-half inch.

To specify a different unit, the Publisher's abbreviation for the
unit is inserted immediately after the paramenter value. For example,
the tag <margin top=0.5in> specifies a top margin of 0.5 inches, that
is, one-half inch. The units recognized by the Publisher, and their
abbreviations, are as follows:

ABBREVIATION    NAME OF UNIT        CONVERSION TO INCHES

dt              dots                300dt = 1 inch

pc              picas               6pc = 1 inch

pt              points              72pt = 1 inch

in              inches              1in = 1 inch

cm              centimeters         2.5400cm = 1 inch

mm              millimeters         25.4001mm = 1 inch

ln              lines               the interline leading

em              em-widths           the point size

cl              column-widths       the column-width

ex              ex-height           height of `x' in current font


2.7 "INCLUDE" FILES

One of the most important convenience features of the Publisher is its
ability to read and act upon sets of instruction tags which have been
previously stored in disk files separate from the text file being
processed. This is accomplished by means of the tag:

<INCLUDE filename>

If a set of instructions is stored in a file called (say) COMMAND.SET,
the set can be invoked at any point in any text file by inserting the
tag <include command.set> in the text file.

This means that any set of tags which is going to be used frequently
only needs to be entered once, and stored in a separate file with
a suitable name. It can then be invoked whenever needed by means of
a single <include> tag.

The include tag is a DIRECTIVE, and must appear by itself on a separate
line. That is, there should be no material on the same line as the
<include> tag, either before or after.

A form of instruction file which is particularly useful is a STYLE
SHEET, which contains complete instructions for the format and layout of
some particular type of document. The user can easily maintain style
sheets on disk for the most frequently used document layouts, and
utilize them as required by means of the <include> directive tag.

2.8 DEFAULT STYLE SHEET: SETUP.TAG

When the Publisher starts to process a document file, it automatically
"includes" the file SETUP.TAG. This file normally contains a set of
document format and page layout instruction tags intended to govern the
operation of the Publisher in the absence of instructions to the
contrary. It may also contain special publisher "system" tags,
regarding the model of printer being used, or the location on disk of
the available soft fonts. The file SETUP.TAG is generated automatically
during the installation of the Publisher, and can be edited by the user
by means of the usual text editor. It is normally set up to specify the
format and layout most often required.

2.9 ORDER OF PROCESSING TEXT AND INSTRUCTIONS

The Publisher processes the input text and instructions in the following
order:

1.   The file SETUP.TAG (which must not contain any printable matter,
including blank lines or blank spaces).

2.  The initial part of the document file, preceding the first printable
character or space. (When an <include> instruction is encountered, the
effect is the same as if the entire contents of the "included" file were
inserted in the document file at the point where the <include>
instruction is located.)

3.   Runtime switches (Print to disk, etc.)

4.   The text and embedded instruction tags in the document file, in the
order in which they appear, starting with the first printable character
or space.

Note: Certain commands may only be placed in the "initialization
sequence", which consists of the SETUP.TAG file, the initial portion of
the document file (preceding the first printable character), and files
"included" in the initial portion of the document file. EXAMPLES:

<model=>   Laserjet or Postscript

<landscape=>    On or Off

Common sense can be used here: Any information the printer needs to
start printing must be given to it before it actually prints anything.

The operation of the Publisher as it proceeds through the document
file is continually governed by the MOST RECENT instructions it has
received. It will therefore operate in accordance with the instructions
in SETUP.TAG unless and until these instructions are replaced by new
instructions contained in the document file, or in a file "included"
in the document file, or conveyed by means of run-time switches. When
new instructions are encountered, the Publisher will start operating in
accordance with them at the point in the document file where they are
encountered, and will continue to so operate until they are replaced by
still further instructions.

If a document file contains no format or layout instructions, the
Publisher will process the whole document in the format and layout
prescribed by SETUP.TAG, subject to any run-time switches.

2.10  "PUSH" AND "POP"

The tags:

<push> and

<pop>

can save substantial amounts of time and effort, and reduce the risk
of inadvertent errors and omissions, when publisher parameters are
being changed temporarily: for example, when a heading is being printed
in a different font, or when a passage of text is being printed with
a different paragraph style from the rest of the document.

The tag <push> saves a record of the current state of many publisher
variables, including font and indentation, and the tag <pop> restores
the state of the publisher which was most recently "pushed".
Accordingly, if a <push> tag is inserted BEFORE the instruction tags
which are used to implement the temporary changes, it will be possible
to cancel the temporary changes (after they have served their purpose)
by means of a single <pop> tag, instead of using a series of instruction
tags to change the publisher variables back to their previous values one
by one.