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1990-03-03
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TABX - tab expansion utility
===============================
The basic function of the TABX utility is to that expands TAB characters
to SPACES. The program works as a filter, that means that it can handle
files of arbitrary size, as big as your disk will allow.
The input is taken form the 'standard input' and output is written
to the 'standard output'. By default standard input is the keyboard
and standard output is the screen.
In order to work with files a redirection of input and output is
necessary. The following line demonstrates how to use TABX when the
input file is named 'input' and the output file is named 'output':
TABX < INPUT > OUTPUT
In addition to tab expansion TABX can do case conversion, eliminate
excessive blank characters and add line numbers.
These options are described below.
Tab spacing can be set in two ways:
1. Fixed tab spacing:
Tabs are expanded to spaces, up to a multiple of the spacing.
TABX 3 < a:input >c:\txt\output
Will set tab stops in columns 3,6,9 etc. there is
no limit to line length.
The default tab spacing is 8.
2. User defined tab spacing:
Tab stops are set according to a tab specification string:
TABX --T----T------T- < aaa > bbb
This will set tab stops at columns 3,8,15.
When the input line is longer the the tab specification string,
tab stops of the excessive characters will be set to default
fixed spacing.
In the specification string, 't' can replace 'T' in setting tab stops,
any other character can replace the '-' characters above.
Each TAB character is expanded to at least one space character.
Other options:
TABX [-flags] [tab_specification] < infile > output
The following flags may be specified:
-e Excessive blank characters are removed from end of lines.
-n Line numbers are inserted at the beginning of lines.
-u Convert all character to upper case.
-l Convert all character to lower.
-c Capitalize words in the file.
-s strip bit 8 from all characters.
Options, fixed tab spacing and tab spec string may appear in any
order on the command line.
The following will add line numbers in addition to expanding tabs:
TABX -l 5 < in > out
Usage summery is available by running
TABX ?
More about options
In addition to expanding tab characters TABX can perform several
other operation on the text that is flowing through it.
Each option may be viewed as a filter, with an input and output
connections. Filters are connected by pipes in the same way a water
(or sewerage) system is made (somewhat resembling unix).
The data stream is entering the system from the standard input,
then it is going through the filter that expand every tab to spaces.
The result stream may flow through optional filters and, finally,
it is going out to the standard output.
The optional filters are connecter by specifying options in the
command line. The order of the filters is important, and is determined
by the order of the flags in the command line.
For example:
TABX -lc < in > out
Will create the following piping:
input expand convert make output
file ===> tabs to ===> to lower ===> capital ===> file
'in' spaces case starts 'out'
This will convert every letter to lower case, and then
capitalize start of sentences only.
On the other hand,
TABX -cl < in > out
Would result in capitalization first and converting all characters
to lower case later. The result will be a file with lower case letters
only.
COPYRIGHT & DISTRIBUTION
Copyright - Baruch Nissenbaum, Israel, 1990.
This program and its source code may be copied by anybody,
for any purpose, as long as the following two terms will be kept:
1. The program will be distributed FREE OF ANY CHARGE whatsoever.
In particular, it is forbidden to include the program in any package
that costs money.
2. This message will be distributed/copied along with the program.
Comments, suggestions and ideas are welcomed, at:
baruch@taunivm.bitnet (taunivm.tau.ac.il) or baruch@taueng.tau.ac.il
baruch.