PAL Release: Portable Text Formatter 1.2

PAL Release: Portable Text Formatter 1.2

[cis.ohio-state.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!wupost!wuarchive.wustl.edu!conn]

Public Ada Library (PAL) Release Notice
Release of: PTF - Portable Text Formatter
------------------------------
1. Taxonomy:
    DOCUMENTATION DEVELOPMENT TOOLS
        WORD PROCESSORS
            PORTABLE TEXT FORMATTER
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2. Author:
    Richard Conn
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3. Rights:
    PUBLIC DOMAIN
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4. Abstract:
   The Portable Text Formatter (PTF) is a document formatting program,
written in Ada, which can execute on a variety of hardware platforms. 
PTF was designed to be as portable as possible, so it should run on any
platform supported by a validated Ada compiler.

   PTF reads one or more source text files which contain both commands
to PTF and text lines, and PTF generates a formatted output file and
(optionally) a file containing index entries. Commands to PTF are
placed on lines whose first character is a dot (this may be changed if
desired), and text lines are those lines whose first character is not a
dot. Commands to PTF instruct it to perform certain operations on the
formatted output file, such as set left margin, underline the following
words, place an entry into the table of contents, place an entry into
the index, and define a macro.

   PTF was designed to meet several objectives:

1. Generate DoD-STD-2167A documents.  PTF was designed specifically to
support the generation of DoD-STD-2167A documents, as detailed in the
DoD-STD-2167A Data Item Descriptors (DIDs). To this end, PTF supports
multiple page heading lines, multiple page footer lines, page numbers
in a variety of formats (including Arabic and Roman numeral),
generation of up to six distinct tables of contents (so that separate
tables for figures and diagrams may be created), and generation of an
index.

2. Support Ada software development.  PTF was written to provide a
mechanism to support other Ada software development tools, such as Ada
PDL (Program Design Language) processors. Output from these tools would
be text files containing PTF commands. Specifically, support of such
tools to process PDL as defined in MIL-HDBK-1804 is anticipated.

3. Support team development of a document.  PTF also supports team
development of a document, where individuals can be given a common set
of macros and instructions on their use, and PTF can assemble a
document in a common format from many different source files which were
independently created.

4. Provide a documentation standard for the Ada Software Repository. 
Many of the reusable documents in the Ada Software Repository will be
revised so they may be processed by PTF, and many new documents will be
released in a form that may be processed by PTF.

5. Port without modification to computer systems for which validated
Ada compilers exist.  PTF is written in Ada and has been tested on a
VAX, Sun, and PC platform in an attempt to insure portability.

   The PTF System consists of two programs: PTF and PTFIDX.  PTF is
the main word processor.  PTFIDX is a companion program to PTF which
processes its index pages.

   The file PTF.VDD contains a listing of the distribution of PTF, an
installation manual, and other instructions which detail how to bring
PTF up on a particular target system.  CS Parts is needed to compile
PTF and PTFIDX.
------------------------------
5. Directory Listing:

languages/ada/doctools/ptf:
  File Name                 Size
  ---------                 ----
  ptf12.zip              178,593
  ptfdiag.zip             44,041
  ptfprint.zip             3,526

languages/ada/swcomps/csparts.*:
  File Name                 Size
  ---------                 ----
  csparts.zip            215,195


Totals
  ==============  ==============
    4 Files              441,355
-- 
====================================================================
Richard Conn, ASR and PAL Manager  |  conn@wuarchive.wustl.edu