Trailing-Edge
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PDP-10 Archives
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decuslib20-02
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decus/20-0069/rtrans.doc
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RTRANS
RUNOFF TRANSLATOR PROGRAM
RTRANS is a program that was developed to accept a text file
and add the necessary RUNOFF commands to it such that if the resultant
file is passed through RUNOFF it will be justified.
The rules for creating a text file to be passed through RTRANS are
as follows:
1) The left margin must be lined up by the typist. This is done
by indenting each line to the desired position. This can be
done with any combination of tabs and spaces.
2) Underlining is performed by going to the next line and placing a "-" (minus sign)
under under each letter which is to be underlined. This
line must contain only tabs, spaces, and minus signs, otherwise
the line will be treated as a normal line of text.
3) To cause a break in the justification (i.e. at the end of
a paragraph) the typist must use one of the following techniques:
A) Leave a blank line at the point where justification
is to be stopped. This will also put a blank line
in the final copy.
B) Indent the new line (in either the positive or the
negative direction) differently from the previous line.
C) Any line with a tab embedded within the text of that line will
cause a break in the justification at the start of
that line. This feature guarantees that tabulated
data will appear correctly in the final copy.
D) If a break is desired without doing one of the previous
functions, the typist can put a <CNTRL>B in the text
stream at the place where the break is to appear.
E) Of course RUNOFF commands can be added directly
in the text stream to cause breaks. For instance,
a ".BREAK" command will cause a break in the
justification in the same fashion that a <CNTRL>B
does. Also, a ".NOFILL" command will turn off justification
and a ".FILL" command will turn it back on. These
commands allow a block of lines to be added which will
not be altered by the justifier.
It should be noted that the ".LEFT MARGIN"
and the ".INDENT" commands may not always work since
RTRANS is controlling the left margin.
The RTRANS program assums that any line starting
with a "." (period) is a command for RUNOFF, and
will pass the whole line through to RUNOFF without any
modification. This means that a line of text which is
not a command for RUNOFF cannot start with
a period.