Otherware/Otherware_1_SB_Development.iso/amiga/system/eolcon.lha/EOLCon.doc

Text File | 1992-05-26 | 5.6 KB | 156 lines

  EOLCon v1.3

    Usage : EOLCon <infile> <outfile> <0|1|2|x> [buffersize]

       infile should be an ascii text file

       outfile can either be a filename for
      the output, OR it can be an asterisk
      (*) to denote that you wish to use
      the same name as <infile>.  Using the
      asterisk for <outfile> will cause a
      temporary file to be created as output,
      then renamed to <infile> after completion.
      Use the force, read the source!

       0 will remove all character 13's
      (carriage returns) in the file.

       1 will add character 13's to the
      end of every line.  Any additional
      CR's found in the middle of a line
      will be deleted.  Only one char 13
      will ever be left on one line, and
      it will always be right before the
      linefeed.  Guaranteed.  :-)

       2 will replace any carriage returns by
      a linefeed.  This is used with files
      that contain no linefeeds of their
      own to begin with.

       x represents any printable character.  It
      will placed at the end of every line.
      This can be any printable key on the
      keyboard except '0', '1', and '2' (for
      obvious reasons).

       buffersize is the number of bytes to use
      for I/O ; be aware that the actual
      amount of memory used is double this
      if removing or replacing CR's ("0" or
      "2" from above description) and triple
      otherwise ("1" or "x" above).
      The default is 10000, which means up to
      30000 bytes of memory may be allocated.
      Why so much?    I could've used dynamically
      allocated space and saved memory, but
      my primary goal for this program was
      SPEED.  I'd rather just grab a big hunk
      and be on my way than constantly getting
      free nodes throughout the ConvertFile()
      loop.  Plus, the source is included.    Fix
      it if it offends you.  :-)  Incidentally,
      the sizes aren't arbitrary...they're worst-
      case approximations.    The worst case is if
      every line of input contains only the line-
      feed char.  This means, for x number of
      input chars, there will be x number of CR's
      (or whatever character you desire) added
      on.  I keep the input and output buffers
      separate, so that is 3x amount of bytes.
      x for the input buffer, 2x for the output
      buffer.  It's better for the "remove CR"
      command ("0")...in this case the buffer is
      2x ; x for the input, x for the output.





   This program will make the end-of-line character
anything the user wants (well, except for the '0', '1',
and '2' characters...they have separate meaning...see
'Usage' above).  When I say 'end-of-line', I actually
mean the character right BEFORE the linefeed char.
The more obvious and most common use of this program
is for porting ascii files back and forth between the
Amiga and MS-DOS machines...the latter uses a carriage
return before each linefeed to designate the end of
a line, and the Amiga does not (just a linefeed).

   The reason I bothered writing another one of these
end-of-line converters is that none I had used combined
speed with accuracy ; that is, they either
were slow, or they had a few problems in actually doing
the converting : some would add on another carriage
return even if the file already contained them.  Granted,
you may want to do such a thing, but it is highly
unlikely in my opinion.  This program will NOT let a
file slip through its fingers with more than one CR per
line.  Since the source is provided, you can change this
if you want.

   In an effort to make this the EOL converter to end
them all, I made speed my first goal.  Since you can make
the buffer as big as you have fast ram, you can get very
fast -- on my hard drive, I converted a 200 Kbyte ascii
file (with the '1' command to add carriage returns) in
about 3 seconds using a buffersize of 200000.  My second
goal was to add some options that I thought were quite
useful in such a program -- a user-definable buffer and
the ability to make the end-of-line (well, at least the
last one before the linefeed) character user-definable.
The latter I added for the use of UUENCODED (or
XXENCODED, as the case may be!!!) files, so
up/downloading on other machines doesn't corrupt the
data (I'm referring to spaces at the end of lines).  I
also found it was real easy and may come in handy in
the far future.  :~)

   NOTE : Removing carriage returns with the "0"
command will remove ALL carriage return characters in
the file!  I did this because some *OTHER* converters
I've tried in the past interspersed them throughout the
file (not just at the end of each line).  If any of
you have used such a 'program', running EOLCon on the
damaged file will repair it, at least to the point of
getting rid of every one of the carriage returns.



   IMPORTANT :
      -------------------------------------------
      I'm releasing this into the Public Domain.
      This is free.  Do whatever you like with
      this program...if you're humble enough to
      give me credit for this, all the better
      (but I don't require it).

      Hack the code if you want.  Give yourself
      full credit.  I don't care.  You can use
      any or all of the source code at your
      discretion.  I wrote this for my own use
      and later decided someone else might want
      it too.  Granted, it's a pretty ridiculous
      little program, but if it works, use it!
      -------------------------------------------

      I would appreciate hearing any comments and
      especially BUG-REPORTS, so E-Mail (this sort of
      program doesn't warrant a Snail address...) me :

      CRVICH @ CSUGRAD.CS.VT.EDU
      GENERAL @ VTVM1.CC.VT.EDU
      GENERAL @ VTVM1.BITNET


      Ernest Crvich
      Virginia Polytechnic Institute
      and State University
      Blacksburg, VA


   Greets to that Belgian lunatic...Pres!!!