Message-ID: <20980061@cmu-cs-k.ARPA>
Date: Sat, 12-Jan-85 19:15:24 EST
Article-I.D.: cmu-cs-k.20980061
Posted: Sat Jan 12 19:15:24 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 14-Jan-85 04:19:52 EST
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 32

I recently snarfed the POW2 text formatter from SIMTEL20.  It works fairly
well overall, but it has a few deficiencies.  Among these are the lack of
various fonts support (you can overstrike a whole line, and underline
centered text -- whoopee), the treatment of centering as a special command
rather than as a justification mode, the lack of variable-space total
justification for printers that support it, the lack of a file inclusion
command, the lack of three-part titles, and blank lines not causing a
paragraph break.

I have fixed one of these by adding font support.  The command FT,number
switches to the font given by the number, in a table of font handling
routine addresses.  The font handling routines output a single character in
the routine's font, and they are printer specific (non-portable).  However,
so far I have only added this for left justification, the only mode I use;
any font changes will result in bad font-character associations in right or
total justify mode, and will have no effect in unformatted text (which I'm
not really sure is a very bad thing).  I would not want to release such a
program, but I am also not heavily motivated to fix it in a way I will never
use.  So does anyone else want to add this?  If you are serious about it,
and have a weekend to spare, let me know and I'll send you a copy.

Perhaps a number of us could work together on adding the other useful
features I mentioned as well.  POW has the potential to be a very powerful
tool; it seems no one has ever gotten around to making it one.
-=-
Tim Maroney, Carnegie-Mellon University Computation Center
ARPA:	Tim.Maroney@CMU-CS-K	uucp:	seismo!cmu-cs-k!tim
CompuServe:	74176,1360	audio:	shout "Hey, Tim!"

"Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are
but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains."
Liber AL, II:9.

Message-ID: <480@intelca.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 15-Jan-85 13:11:13 EST
Article-I.D.: intelca.480
Posted: Tue Jan 15 13:11:13 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 18-Jan-85 02:01:22 EST
References: <20980061@cmu-cs-k.ARPA>
Organization: Intel, Santa Clara, Ca.
Lines: 14

Tim, Have you looked into the ROFF4 formatter? It has all of the features
you mentioned plus some. It is on Simtel20 if you want to snarf a copy,
also available on your local BBS (Consult RCPM-057.LST for details,
not available in all areas, not sold in stores) It has the nice feature
of being able to define ones own font (assuming your printer can do
bit mapped graphics) and is quite flexible.

--Chuck

-- 
                                            - - - D I S C L A I M E R - - - 
{ihnp4,fortune}!dual\                     All opinions expressed herein are my
        {qantel,idi}-> !intelca!cem       own and not those of my employer, my
 {ucbvax,hao}!hplabs/                     friends, or my avocado plant. :-}