ftp.whtech.com/ftp.whtech.com.7z/ftp.whtech.com/articles/Sughrue/iffing.txt

Text File | 2006-10-19 | 9.0 KB | 181 lines

.IF DSK1.C3
.CE 2
*IMPACT/99*
by Jack Sughrue

 IFFING TIW
.IF DSK1.C2


To what state have we arrived, jargonwise, when such a title as IFFING TIW has
some meaning?
If you use T.I. WRITER or any of its improved versions (T.K. WRITER, B.A.
WRITER, or - by far the most superior - FUNNELWEB), you may have become
familiar with the Include File structure.  This Include-Filing process (known
as IFfing) allows some extraordinary things to happen to your word processor.
It automatically brings up a file into your text that will let you access,
simply, some very complex things.
Like what?
 Like that, for example; but let's say you'd like to have a term-paper style
format (centered heading, right justification, wide margins, double spacing,
along with an active transliteration key to underline, double strike, super/sub
script and so on at will WITHIN YOUR DOCUMENT AND OPERATED FROM KEY PRESSES!),
then IFfing will give it to you.  Then lets say that part way through this term
paper you need a large indentation and condensed type to offset that piece from
the rest of the paper.  And then go back to the original structure.  IFfing
does that by just adding a few characters before the offset piece and a few
characters to return it, right in the text as you are typing.
Or say you have a series of sections to a long piece of writing: a novel
perhaps.  You have six chapter written, you want to load up the disk and print
all six chapters saved under different filenames.  With the flick of an IFfing
switch you can print them ALL while you're off having dinner or taking your dog
to the cheese factory.  When you return your novel (to this stage) is printed
out.  That's IFfing.

First, you must build a file to be IFfed.  Ninth easiest thing in the world.
(We'll discuss the other eight in another column some time, but I will mention
that breathing is Number One.  So you can see the competition.)

^.FI;AD;LM 4;RM 75;IN +3
^.TL 1:27,52
^.TL 2:27,53
^.TL 3:27,83,0
^.TL 4:27,83,1
^.TL 5:27,84
^.TL 6:27,66,3
^.TL 7:18
^.TL 8:27,87,1
^.TL 9:27,87,0
^.TL 19:27,66,2
^.TL 20:18
^.TL 12:7
^.TL 21:27,45,1
^.TL 22:27,45,0
^.TL 15:27,71
^.TL 16:27,72
^.TL 17:27,69
^.TL 18:27,70

Above, for example, is a code template I use in thePLUS!companion disk I
wrote and edited for the Fairware market.  As template codes go it is fairly
simple.  The first line FIlls, ADjusts (for right justification), Left Margins
(in 4), Right Margins (in 75), and INdents (3 in from ANY Left Margin I
establish during my document).  This, I would assume, would be a reasonable
standard for most text.  I could have added (and DID on other templates) double
spacing, automatic page numbering, a pre-designed HEader, or many other things.
The template above is primarily to activate the TL key.  After this template is
SAVEd as a file (Do not type in the > sign.  Begin each line with the period.),
it is best to keep that tiny file on your main FUNNELWEB (or whatever) disk
under a quick title.  I refer to it as C3 because it is the third templete I
created.  C2, for example, will automatically let me type out in condensed at
132 columns wide with all the TL keys intact.  C4 will give me the term-paper
structure I mentioned above.  C1 is strict TL.  My margins and indents will be
my own problem.  And so on.
Okay.  Let's say you've typed in and SAVEd that exact file under the filename
C3 on your FUNNELWEB on DSK1.
Now, whenever you load your wordprocessor and the cursor awaits your initial
command, type T <ENTER>.  Then put an L on 1, and I on 5, and an R on 38.  This
will set your screen margins within the width of the screen and will
automatically create an indentation at the start of each paragraph.  You'll be
able to read everything ON your screen - no more windowing.
Next, press FCTN/0.  This will rid the screen of line numbers and let you view
your literary masterpiece unfettered.
Now your cursor is sitting in the upper left corner of your screem rarin' to
go.  Type the following without the parentheses: (.IF DSK1.C3) and press ENTER.

Type whatever text you want, viewing it perfectly on your screen.  Feel free to
use the TL keys to underline, enlarge, condense, doublestrike, superscript,
italicize, letter quality, elite, whatever, whenever you wish.
The code is sitting there to automatically FORMAT this text into the original
FIll/ADjust etc. you wanted.  And, even though the template is tiny, you have
the most extraordinary other things built in.
The TL chart is mnemonic.  I built it that way when I first began to us the TL
key in 1981 to help myself remember.  It has been very easy, very faithful.
With that C3 sitting in DSK1., all you do to automatically call up any of this
stuff is type the following:
CTRL/U, SHIFT/n, CTRL/U.  n is the letter that turns ON the desired printer
code.  The following ALPHABETICAL letter, using the same CTRL/U, SHIFT/n,
CTRL/U will turn off the code.
An example would be if you wanted some words doublestruck for emphasis.  You
would type along regularly.  Then when you came to the word or words you wanted
doublestruck you would type CTRL/U, SHIFT/O, CTRL/U.  Then type all the things
you want in dark type.  Then type CTRL/U, SHIFT/P, CTRL/U.  That will shut it
off, and you can go on typing to your heart's content.  If O turns it on, P
turns it off.  Italics is turned ON by A, so B turns it off.  Underlined is
turned on by U, so V turns it off.  If you wanted some words underlined and
doublestuck and in italics with the above template, you would type CTRL/U,
SHIFT/UOA, CTRL/U.  To turn this batch off type CTRL/U, SHIFT/VPB, CTRL/U.
Neat, eh?
(At the end of this article is the complete mnemonic code Quick Reference Chart
for the FUNLPLUS! Template C3 shown above.)
(The TL key, by the way, can do MUCH, MUCH more than just activate printer
codes in this way.  But that will have to be another column.)

Now back to our text.  You've type all you wanted (let's say a two-page letter)
and you're ready to print.  Type SF.  Type DSK2.WHATEVER.  After the file is
SAVEd to another disk, go back to the Command line (FCTN/9) and type Q <ENTER>
and E <ENTER>.  If you are using FUNNELWEB you are back to the menu.  Type 2
(FORMATTER).  When the file comes up it'll say DSK2.WHATEVER.  Turn on your
printer.  Press the keys all the way down and watch your printer PRINT out
full-width, right-justified, fully-coded text!

But what if you wanted to print lots of files?  There are lots of ways of doing
this.  Whatever is convenient for you.

I took the C3 template above and added the following for a special projet:
^.HE Poetry Book:THE LINK by Jack Sughrue
^.FO Page %
^.IF DSK2.THE/LINK1
^.IF DSK2.THE/LINK2
^.IF DSK2.THE/LINK3
^.IF DSK2.THE/LINK4,
This printed out each file of my book after first going back to DSK1.C3 to see
what was expected of the FORMATTER.  But it would go to DSK2 to get each file
itself.
I could even add
>.IF DSK3.THE/LINK5
>.IF DSK1.LAST/POEM
>.IF DSK.BOOK.CREDITS
if I wanted to, becasue the original IFfer will sort it all out for me.  If one
file is on DSK3 and another on DSK1 and another in ANY drive as long as the
disk name is BOOK, it will find the file and PRINT it out.
Isn't that extraordinary?

With IFfing you can expand the horizons of your FUNNELWEB (or whatever TIW
processor you're using) to exciting new dimensions.  I have used the IFfing so
much over the years, I have even created LF templates that make the LOADing
even faster. I have a file called 2, for example, that automatically loads up
the C2 code and the first few lines including condensed FORMAT codes which
can't be replicated in this article.  But you could actually create the
following file and call it 3 (because it will draw up C3) in the automatic
process:
^.IF DSK1.C3
^.CE 4
^FUNLPLUS! v. 4.4
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
^by Jack Sughrue
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This automatically loads the IF and CEnters the next four lines which act as a
quick heading for letters about Version 4.4.  From there I can type the notes
or comments or letters or article and SAVE it by its new name.  When I print it
out, it will call up C3 and PRINT out all my text within the C3 structure.
This is great because you are automatically at the Command Mode when you enter
FUNNELWEB.  Just typing DSK1.3 loads up everything shown above AND the Tabs I
had previously set.  Thus, no more TABbing; no more typing the IF info, no more
setting up the text structure.  It's all in one number - 3.  And all the
FORMATting code is in C3.  Beautiful.
I don't know of another wordprocessor that allows such wonderful flexibility
and speed.
This system of templates would be even greater with RAMdisk and DSDD drives, of
course, but all my system had when I first created and used these codes was one
SSSD drive, and it sure is easy and fun.

[Jack Sughrue, Box 459, E.Douglas MA 01516]


If any newsletter editor prints these IMPACT/99 articles, please put me on your
mailing list.  Thanks - JS

ÇåÇ╒ïÉòƒ⌐│╜╟╒╒╒╒╒╒╒╒Çå