FFFFFFFF((((1111)))) WWWWaaaannnngggg IIIInnnnssssttttiiiittttuuuutttteeee ((((AAAAuuuugggguuuusssstttt 11110000,,,, 1111999988885555)))) FFFFFFFF((((1111)))) NNNNAAAAMMMMEEEE ff - fast text formatter UUUUSSSSAAAAGGGGEEEE ffffffff [options] [-] [files] DDDDEEEESSSSCCCCRRRRIIIIPPPPTTTTIIIIOOOONNNN _f_f is a simple text formatter for flexible uniform formatting of input files. Program options are used to control formatting. This is in contrast to text formatters like _n_r_o_f_f (_1) that require special format requests to be part of their input files. Besides avoiding cryptic format requests in text, _f_f is considerably faster than traditional formatters like _n_r_o_f_f (_1) and even simple formatters like _f_m_t (_1). The most complicated concept with _f_f is that of a line break. A line break causes an interruption in the filling (evening out of the text lines). Line breaks occur when special characters are seen at the beginnings of lines, or when all lines are broken. By default, any non-alphanumeric character will cause a break, but this can be controlled with the ----BBBB option. A blank line always causes a break. OOOOPPPPTTTTIIIIOOOONNNNSSSS There are many, many options to allow control of indentation, line width, line spacing, filling, pagination with headers and footers, line numbering, right justification, and perhaps some other things. They have extensive type and range checking that produces diagnostic error messages, so warnings of obviously wrong options will not be discussed here. In general, options that imply the use of others work the way they should; if the page size is set, then pagination is automatically assumed. Some combinations of options give impressive, even artistic, effects. Making a small text file and playing with it is the easiest way to learn how the options interact. ----bbbb Break all lines of text. That is, don't even-out lines by filling. By default, text lines are filled. ----BBBB bbbbrrrreeeeaaaakkkkcccchhhhaaaarrrrssss Change the set of characters that cause line breaks at the start of lines to _b_r_e_a_k_c_h_a_r_s. By default, any characters but letters and numbers cause a break. A good choice for break characters might be "*-+" and TABS that might be used for lists. ----cccc Center all lines of text. This option stops all filling of text. ----dddd Delete white space at the beginning and end of lines. Page 1 (printed 1/1/86) FFFFFFFF((((1111)))) WWWWaaaannnngggg IIIInnnnssssttttiiiittttuuuutttteeee ((((AAAAuuuugggguuuusssstttt 11110000,,,, 1111999988885555)))) FFFFFFFF((((1111)))) This option is useful to help un-format text to be re- formatted. ----DDDD Delete empty input lines. An input line is empty if it has no characters, not even invisible character like tabs or spaces. This option can be combined with the option to remove white space to delete visibly blank lines. ----ffff ffffooooooootttteeeerrrr Set the page footer to the string _f_o_o_t_e_r. This can be any string, but if the first character is not a letter or a digit, but a punctuation character like /, then that character separates the left, center, and right fields of a title. For example, the title "/ff: fast formatter//1985/" would have "ff: fast formatter" as a left justified field and 1985 as a right justified field on each page. Note that there is no middle field in this example, but there could have been, between the two consecutive /'s. There are two special characters, % and *, that respectively are variables for the page number and the input file name. The default page footer is blank. ----FFFF ffffooooooootttteeeerrrrssssiiiizzzzeeee Set the number of blank lines at the bottom of the page. The footer, if any, is placed in the middle of the space, which by default, is five lines. If _f_o_o_t_e_r_s_i_z_e is 0, no footer will be printed. ----hhhh hhhheeeeaaaaddddeeeerrrr Set the page header. See the description of three-part titles for the ----ffff ffffooooooootttteeeerrrr option. The default page header is "|File: *||Page: %|". ----HHHH hhhheeeeaaaaddddeeeerrrrssssiiiizzzzeeee See the description of the footer size. ----iiii iiiinnnnddddeeeennnntttt Set the indentation of the text to _i_n_d_e_n_t spaces. Note that this effectively reduces the usable width of the page. ----IIII tttteeeemmmmppppiiiinnnnddddeeeennnntttt Set the temporary indent. This causes filled text found immediately after a break to be indented for one line. It is useful for indenting the first lines of paragraphs. If _t_e_m_p_i_n_d_e_n_t is negative, the the temporary indent will be relative to the current _i_n_d_e_n_t value. If the _t_e_m_p_i_n_d_e_n_t value is more negative than the _i_n_d_e_n_t value is positive, _f_f will automatically Page 2 (printed 1/1/86) FFFFFFFF((((1111)))) WWWWaaaannnngggg IIIInnnnssssttttiiiittttuuuutttteeee ((((AAAAuuuugggguuuusssstttt 11110000,,,, 1111999988885555)))) FFFFFFFF((((1111)))) increase _i_n_d_e_n_t. ----jjjj Justify the text. That is, even the right margin by inserting spaces in the line. Only filled text can be justified. ----nnnn Number all output lines produced by the input text. Lines from multiple line spacing or pagination will not be numbered. ----NNNN nnnnuuuummmmbbbbeeeerrrrwwwwiiiiddddtttthhhh Set the width of the line numbers. The default is to take up 4 spaces. Note that this effectively reduces the usable part of the page. ----pppp Paginate the output. See the options for page header and footer control. ----PPPP ppppaaaaggggeeeessssiiiizzzzeeee Set the number of lines in a page to _p_a_g_e_s_i_z_e. By default, the standard 66 line page is assumed. ----ssss ssssppppaaaacccciiiinnnngggg Set the line spacing. By default, text is single spaced (_s_p_a_c_i_n_g equals 1). ----tttt ttttaaaabbbb Set individual absolute and relative tab stops. These values tell the formatter where to put the text (from an unfilled line) that follows a tab character. Each tab stop is supplied with its own ----tttt option; there is no way to bundle them. _t_a_b values can be integers without a plus sign. These are _a_b_s_o_l_u_t_e tab settings; the tabs go to that position. The values must increase monotonically. If a _t_a_b value is preceded by a plus sign, then it is interpreted _r_e_l_a_t_i_v_e to the previous tab setting. For example, a tab setting of 40 followed by one of +20 will set the second tab stop to 60. ----TTTT ttttaaaabbbbssss Set tab stops to every _t_a_b_s spaces. It is useful to get equally spaced tabs. This option cannot be used with the other tab setting option. ----uuuu Print All Input Text As Initial Upper-Case Titles, Like This Sentence. This option goes well with the one for centering lines. ----UUUU Print a usage summary of all the options and stop. ----wwww wwwwiiiiddddtttthhhh Set the page width. By default, the page width is 72 Page 3 (printed 1/1/86) FFFFFFFF((((1111)))) WWWWaaaannnngggg IIIInnnnssssttttiiiittttuuuutttteeee ((((AAAAuuuugggguuuusssstttt 11110000,,,, 1111999988885555)))) FFFFFFFF((((1111)))) characters. Note that the usable line length is sometimes less than the page width. If line numbering or indentation is requested, these subtract from the line length. EEEEXXXXAAAAMMMMPPPPLLLLEEEESSSS Some of these examples can make shell scripts or aliases. Centered Titles: title ff -dcu $* Double Spaced Unfilled Paginated indented (for editing): draft ff -s 2 -b -p -f "`date`" -i 8 $* Program Listing: cpr H="@ Dir: `pwd`@@File: *@" F="@ $NAME@`date`@Page %@" ff -b -N 8 -H 3 -h "$H" -F 3 -f "$F" -T 4 -w 79 -i 2 $* Reformat Paragraphed Text: nr ff -jd -I 5 -i 10 -w 65 -B "TAB SP'*.@" $* DDDDIIIIAAAAGGGGNNNNOOOOSSSSTTTTIIIICCCCSSSS Some options are incompatible with others. For example, centered text cannot be right-justified. _f_f will not allow inconsistent combinations of options. SSSSEEEEEEEE AAAALLLLSSSSOOOO fmt(1), nroff(1), scribe(1w) AAAAUUUUTTTTHHHHOOOORRRR Gary Perlman (with help from many students) SSSSTTTTAAAATTTTUUUUSSSS Pretty well tested. Page 4 (printed 1/1/86)