Short:    AmigaFormats ex-Tasword ZX/SAM documents
Author:   simon@studio.woden.com (Simon N Goodwin)
Uploader: simon@studio.woden.com (Simon N Goodwin)
Version:  1.02, 22 May 1999
Type:     misc/emu

This is a program to convert fixed length line files for an Amiga.
It is still notionally a beta but ready for Aminet users. Please
get in touch with Simon with comments by email, if you use this.

It was written to make it easy to read, edit and print Spectrum
Tasword and MGT SamScratch files, from archives or from original
disks read via Frank Swift's excellent Amiga XFS and SP-handlers.

Most such files have fixed-length lines of 64 characters with no
termination. This means they read and print as a diagonal mess
unless first processed to convert them into normal text, in LF
terminated lines of variable length. A side-effect of conversion
is that extra spaces at the end of the lines are removed, so the
converted file is normally shorter despite the extra line feeds.

TasRead can also be used for other fixed-length formats, such as
FORTH, which often uses 'screens' of 16 or 24 fixed-length lines,
and can easily be modified for other line widths (e.g. 32 column
Tasword or 85 column MasterScratch) if you have HiSoft BASIC or
some other MBASIC/QBASIC compatible compiler. TasRead 1.02 tries
to work out the line length from the total file length, after
removing PLUS3DOS disk file and ZX82 emulation headers.

This program is copyright by Simon N Goodwin, simon@studio.co.uk,
first published in 1999, and may be freely distributed only with
the complete documentation, BASIC source and standard Amiga icons.
