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-
-
- FILT Version 1.00
- Copyright (c) 1988 Eric Tauck
- All Rights Reserved
- 03/07/1988
-
- FILT is a text filter that performs some low level formatting and
- translation functions. Being a filter, FILT does its input and
- output through the console device (CON). Input and output files
- must be specified with the DOS redirection commands. The basic
- syntax is:
-
- FILT options < input_file > output_file
-
- The options consist of single letters and are described below.
- The input_file and output_file, in conjunction with the
- redirection characters < and >, tell DOS what files to use for
- input and output. If no input file is specified, the keyboard
- will be used. If no output file is specified, the screen will be
- used.
-
- The options are single, case sensitive letters. Any number of
- options may be specified. Some of the options are followed by a
- number. All numbers are decimal and come immediately after the
- option letter (with no intervening spaces). Numbers over 65535
- will cause an error.
-
- Summary of options (# denotes number):
-
- Tab Replacement: Tab Assignment:
-
- x = expand tabs to spaces e = erase all tab stops
- c = compress spaces to tabs t# = set tab stop
-
- Character Replacement: Line Format:
-
- S = strip high bits m = add left margin
- C = strip control chars d = delete left margin
- H = strip high (>127) bytes l# = truncate long lines
- U = all letters to upper-case r = remove trailing spaces
- L = all letters to lower-case b# = byte to end input lines
- A = capitalize words s = save carriage returns
-
- End of File: I/O Buffer:
-
- z = ignore ^Z in input i# = input buffer size (20000)
- Z = suppress ^Z in output o# = output buffer size (20000)
-
- The following is a full description of all options, listed in
- alphabetical order (lower-case first):
-
- ? Help. Display a summary of the options.
-
-
- b# Byte to end input lines. Defines the character that will
- identify an end of line (EOL). For instance, b13 will cause
- a line to be ended when a carriage return is reached. The
- default is b10. This option does not effect how EOL's will
- be written, they are always ended with a CR+LF combination.
-
- c Compress spaces to tabs. When possible, spaces will be
- replaced by tab characters (ASCII 9). The default tab stops
- are every eight columns, but can be set manually with the e
- and t options.
-
- d# Delete left margin. The specified number of characters will
- be deleted from the left side of all the lines. Any
- characters will be deleted. Note that tabs only count as
- one character.
-
- e Erase all tab stops. All tab stops will be erased. User
- defined tab stops (set with the t option) should come after
- the e option.
-
- h Help. Display a summary of the options.
-
- i# Input buffer size. Set the size of the input buffer. The
- default is i20000. Making it larger might improve the
- processing rate for a slow input device, while making it
- smaller will use less memory.
-
- l# Truncate long lines. Lines longer than the specified length
- will be truncated. Normally any length lines (up to about
- 600 characters) are acceptable.
-
- m# Add left margin. The specified number of spaces will be
- added to the left margin.
-
- o# Output buffer size. Set the size of the output buffer. The
- default is o20000. Making it larger might improve the
- processing rate for a slow output device, while making it
- smaller will use less memory.
-
- s Save carriage returns. All carriage returns (ASCII 13) are
- normally deleted from the input. This option might be
- useful in a file that contains line boundaries without
- carriage returns, but does contain carriage returns as some
- kind of special formatting code.
-
- r Remove trailing spaces. Any spaces (or tabs when using the
- c option) that come at the end of lines will be removed.
- Spaces at the end of lines, though superfluous, are often
- left over from word processors.
-
- t# Set a tab stop. A tab stop will be set at the specified
- column number. The first column is number one. Any number
- of tab stops may be specified. The default tab stops are
- every eight columns, i.e. t9 t17 t25 etc.
-
-
- x Expand tabs to spaces. All tab characters (ASCII 9) will be
- replaced with an equivalent number of spaces. The default
- tab stops are every eight columns, but can be set manually
- with the e and t options.
-
- z Ignore ^Z in the input file. A ^Z (ASCII 26) normally
- identifies the end of a file. If this option is used, the
- full number of bytes recorded in the directory will be read.
-
- A Capitalize words. Letters that follow another letter will
- be converted to lower-case, all other letters will be
- converted to upper-case.
-
- C Strip control characters. All characters below ASCII 32
- will be removed.
-
- H Strip high bytes. All characters above ASCII 127 will be
- removed.
-
- L Convert all letters to lower-case.
-
- S Strip high bits. The high bit of all bytes above ASCII 127
- will be cleared.
-
- U Convert all letters to upper-case.
-
- Z Suppress ^Z in the output file. Normally a ^Z (ASCII 26) is
- written to the end of the file. If this option is used, a
- ^Z will not be written.
-
- The following are some examples of FILT option and file
- specifications:
-
- filt ?
- Displays a summary of all options to the screen.
-
- filt cr < data.fil > data.new
- Means: c = compress spaces to tab characters; and r = remove
- trailing spaces. The input file is DATA.FIL and the output
- file is DATA.NEW. This combination of options may greatly
- reduce the size of a file by compressing or removing
- unnecessary spaces.
-
- filt zZCHi500o500 < a:text.xxx > c:\doc\text.txt
- Means: z = ignore any input ^Zs; Z = do not write a ^Z to the
- end of the file; C = remove all control characters; H = remove
- any characters with a value greater than 127; i500 = set the
- input buffer size to 500 bytes; and o500 = set the output
- buffer size to 500 bytes. The input file is A:TEXT.XXX and
- the output file is C:\DOC\TEXT.TXT. This combination of
- options converts the input file into a pure ASCII file with no
- control characters (except for the line boundaries). Note
- that about 39000 fewer bytes of memory are used during
- execution because of the buffer sizes, 500+500=1000 instead of
- the default 20000+20000=40000.
-