Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!sri-unix!mullen@nrl-css From: mullen@nrl-css@sri-unix.UUCP Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Re: Broff and a proposed net project Message-ID: <3731@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Tue, 2-Aug-83 15:47:45 EDT Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.3731 Posted: Tue Aug 2 15:47:45 1983 Date-Received: Fri, 5-Aug-83 10:39:16 EDT Lines: 33 From: Preston MullenDate: 1 Aug 83 21:30:34-PDT (Mon) From: decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!zrm@ucb-vax Subject: Re: Broff and a proposed net project What to do? One possiblilty would be to keep formatting information in a separate companion file. If the free text gets bashed, then the editor tries its best to figure out how it was bashed (the companion file could be a superset of the free text, including its contents plus formatting info) and rebuilds the companion file.... That's sort of how FORTUNE (tm?) systems do it. (They run Unix (tm) with a menu-based shell -- you can also escape into a Bourne shell. One application is a Wang (tm?) word processor look-alike. The keyboard even has all the special keys in the same configuration as Wang's.) They keep three (two?) files for each word processor document. I don't know exactly what's in each file, but I think one contains only "format lines" (line spacing and tab settings). I do not believe that they duplicate the "free text" in two files, one with imbedded formatting controls and one without. (One might assume that the word processor would typically be used as a self-contained subsystem; it then wouldn't pay to always keep two versions of the text.) I do believe they have programs that can map the text with imbedded formatting information into an easily-readable plain text file, but I did not actually see such programs. (I imagine you could figure out the representation and write such a program yourself in a couple of hours.) This is what I recall from a demo of the system and a few minutes of browsing in its files. This is not an endorsement of any product, and I am not connected with any of the companies that make or sell the aforementioned products.