Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!agate!enzyme.berkeley.edu!jfh
From: jfh@enzyme.berkeley.edu (John Heckendorn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: UNIX -> Mac WP conversion
Message-ID: <21217@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 6 Mar 89 17:59:05 GMT
Sender: usenet@agate.BERKELEY.EDU
Reply-To: jfh@enzyme.berkeley.edu (John Heckendorn)
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Organization: University of California, Berkeley
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Well, the news on converting vi-type UNIX files to RTF or another
Macintosh format is that there is currently *no* utility that will
do a complete job.  The closest thing is an old (vintage 1987)
program called MakeWrite, which will do some of the typeface
conversions (bold, italic, etc.) and a couple of other things
like smartquotes, but cannot understand complex paragraph
formats or most of the other peculiarities of command-oriented
word processing files.

It wouldn't be exceedingly difficult to write a conversion
utility to translate one particular type of formatted text
file (vi, emacs, Jove, etc.) to another (RTF, MacWrite), given
that the common formats are well-documented, but it would be
a challenge to come up with something to do a conversion from
any selection of one to any selection of another.  Re. the former:
Any takers???

John Heckendorn
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One of these should work...
    jfh@enzyme.berkeley.edu                   apple!bmug!john.heckendorn@sun.com
    bmug@garnet.berkeley.edu                      bmug!john.heckendorn@apple.com
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