Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!natinst!rpp386!mark
From: mark@rpp386.cactus.org (Mark Lehmann)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Word Writer format company
Message-ID: <17426@rpp386.cactus.org>
Date: 10 Dec 89 02:21:46 GMT
References: <227@trwrb.UUCP> <7941@cs.yale.edu>
Reply-To: mark@rpp386.UUCP (Mark Lehmann)
Organization: Mark Lehmann
Lines: 34

In article <7941@cs.yale.edu> fischer-michael@cs.yale.edu (Michael Fischer) writes:
>In article <227@trwrb.UUCP>, gibson@trwrb.UUCP (Greg Gibson) writes:
>> I use Word Writer because it has a spell check and thesaurus.  However, I
>> can not get the paragraph format command to work.  Does any know how to
>> make the Word Writer paragraph format command to work? I think anyone
>> selling a word processor without a properly working format command should
>> be jailed for fraud.
>> 
>> Thank You,
>> Gregory Gibson

Because of this very reason, I wrote a C program to analyze regular text
files and determine where the paragraphs end and then convert the text file
into a Word Writer (also First Word) file.  I can send it to anyone who
wants it.  It is just a short C program (written in Laser C, but ports to
UNIX, so should be able to port to any C language for the ST).
 
I don't have my code available now (just reformated the hard drive for
MINIX, and the Laser C code is backed up on floppy) but from memory, I
think that all blank spaces (ASCII 32) gets converted to ASCII character
30.  There is a ASCII character 30 before every newline (ASCII 10).  And
the end of a paragraph has no ASCII 30 before the newline.
 
Kind of an interesting format.  When the Word Writer format is displayed
all the blank spaces will appear to have disappeared, but really, they are
just represented as ASCII character 30, which doesn't show up on the Atari
ST screen (at least it doesn't in TOS/GEM).
 
Mark Lehmann
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| Mark Lehmann                       |                                   |
| mark@rpp386.cactus.org             |                                   |
| {bigtex|texbell}!rpp386!mark       |                                   |