;;06-13-85
                         OUTLN.DOC v1.1
                            07/24/85
Eric Gans
French Dep't UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90024

Version 1.1 update:
Added skip-line toggle, force blank spaces; corrected a couple of 
messages. 

 
    In  these  days of the "outline-processors"  KAMAS  and  the 
public-domain  TOUR, a friend showed me an older program   called 
OUTLINE that has no fancy command-structure but is all the easier 
to use.   Instead of trying (and probably failing) to be its  own 
word-processor,  it processes Wordstar source files of any length 
that  you  create using commands that can be learned in about  30 
seconds.   The result of the processing is an outline in Wordstar 
DOC  mode  that can itself be edited directly.   A  great  little 
program, but with a couple of drawbacks: 

     1.  Allows only four outline levels, with no "0"  level  for 
ordinary text.
     2.  Limited number of entries at each level (39 for level 1, 
26 for level 2, etc.)
     2.   The  right  margin cannot be  more  than  80  (although 
printers in compressed mode can handle 120).
     3.   The file takes up 16K on disk and, although  not  slow, 
could  be  a lot faster. (It uses so many PUSH's, POP's  and  DAD 
SP's that it must have been written in Forth.)


     OUTLN  is  a  Z80  version of  OUTLINE  with  the  following 
improvements:

     1.  Allows 8 outline levels plus a "zero" level for straight 
text.
     2.  Allows right margins from 50-255
     3.  Creates a BAK file from your source (if you use the same 
name  for  source and destination); this can be disabled  with  a 
switch.
     4.   Occupies  only 13 sectors (1.5 K) and is quite fast (30 
seconds for an 80K source file).

Format: outln sourcefile [destfile] [/switches]

If  no destfile given, the same name will be used and the  source 
filename changed to fn.BAK.

Switches:

B = no BAK file. (Use only if destfile name not entered.)

L = don't skip extra lines between headings (default will skip  1 
line  before  headings @2-@8 and 2 before @0 and @1;  with the  L 
switch you skip one line before @0 and @1 and none otherwise)

Mnn  =  Set right margin to nn.  50 <= nn <=  255.   The  default 
margin is 65, as in WS.

The  switches  can be entered together in any  order:  /bm100  or 
/m100bl is acceptable 

Command structure:

     The outline levels (0-8) are entered following an "@".  They 
may  appear at any point in the text, although it is  simpler  to 
put  them in the left margin.  The outline remains in  the  order 
entered and is indented and numbered according to the level:

@0 = text (flush left margin)
@1 = roman caps I-CCLV = 255  
@2 = Caps A-Z  The 27th @2 will produce A & will continue to wrap 
around until 255 letters have been reached.
@3 = Numbers 1-255
@4 = l.c. a-z as in @2
@5 = roman l.c. i-cclv  as in @1
@6 = (Caps) (A)-(Z) as in @2
@7 = (Numbers) (1)-(255) as in @3
@8 = (l.c.) (a)-(z) as in @5

@l  or @L = skip line toggle.  Switches between skip-line and  no 
skip modes (see "L" switch description) within the file, allowing 
you to close up or spread out the outline at different points.

Spaces,  crlf's and "soft" hyphens will be compressed to a single 
space when the outline is output.  To force spaces (in formatting 
tables,  etc.),  use the underline character "_"  This will  only 
work within the predefined margins. 

For  either "@" or "_" as a literal,  precede it by  @:  "@_@_@_" 
will produce "___"

Thus:
@1 OUTLN
@2 ease of operation
@3 small size
@3 simple command structure
@4 single format
@4 follows text order
@3 speed 
@2 flexibility
@3 allows direct entry using WS @l
@3 allows files of any length  @l
@3 margins 50-255
@4 to format: 123     456
@4 use:_______123_____456
would appear (with the /l switch) as:

        I.  OUTLN 
            A.  ease of operation 
                1.  small size 
                2.  simple command structure 
                    a.  single format 
                    b.  follows text order 
                3.  speed  
            B.  flexibility 
                1.  allows direct entry using WS 

                2.  allows files of any length 
                3.  margins 50-255 
                    a.  to format: 123 456
                    b.  use:       123     456

Notes:  

If  you want to edit the outline with WS,  you should  reset  the 
right  margin  with ^OR if you used the "M" switch.   OUTLN  does 
nothing about page breaks since WS creates its own and kills  any 
others already in the file (i.e., converts 8ah to 0ah) on editing 
or printing. 

Like  OUTLINE,  OUTLN give you total freedom in changing  levels.  
You can mix them in any order, although of course the traditional 
format  moves  downward  1 level at a time and  never  permits  a 
single  entry  at any level (e.g.,  no "A" without  a  "B").   It 
seemed  counterproductive to waste code on error checking when it 
might just be useful in some application to jump from level 1  to 
level 5 ... and in any case, the program is simple enough so that 
you  will  have  no  difficulty  in  applying  these  constraints 
yourself.


The  enhancements  of  v1.1 were made at the suggestion  of  Dick 
Sheresh  of Chula Vista CA.   If you have other  suggestions  for 
additional features/corrections I will do my best to include them 
in a future version.