SOFTEN

               A program to convert an ASCII text 
               file to WordStar document format.

SOFTEN  is an example of a simple filter program.  It  reads  in 
characters  from one file, modifies them in some way, and  reads 
them  out to another file.  In this case the modification is  to 
the  carriage  returns that occur at the ends  of  lines  within 
paragraphs.

WordStar  distinguishes  between  "hard"  and  "soft"   carriage 
returns in order to facilitate reformatting paragraphs.  A hard
return  is used to designate the last line of a paragraph  or  a 
blank  line  and  is not altered during  reformatting.   A  soft 
return, on the other hand, is only temporary.  If a soft  return 
is  encountered  during  reformatting it is  ignored  unless  it 
happens  to fall at the end of a reformatted line.  

In an ASCII text file, all returns are hard.  The job of  SOFTEN 
is to determine which of the carriage returns must be  softened.  
It   does  this  by  looking  ahead  and   checking   subsequent 
characters.   The next character after a return will be  a  line 
feed.   The  character  after that will  be  another  return,  a 
letter, a space or a tab.  If the character is a letter,  SOFTEN 
assumes  that  the current line is within a  paragraph  and  the 
carriage  return  is  softened by setting the  high  bit  (i.e., 
changing the byte from 0Dh to 8Dh).  In the other cases,  SOFTEN 
assumes the current line is at the end of a paragraph and passes 
the return unchanged as a hard return.

There  is  another distinguishing feature of  WordStar  document 
files  that can be considered when converting a file.   That  is 
the  use  of "soft" hyphens to split a word between  two  lines.  
WordStar  prints a soft hyphen if it is the last character on  a 
line and ignores it within a line.  The program HSOFTEN is prov-
ided  to  convert  end-of-line hyphens in  text  files  to  soft 
hyphens in addition to softening carriage returns.  It should be 
used with caution, however, since there are times when a  hyphen 
shouldn't  be softened.  An example is in the case  of  compound 
adjectives (e.g., non-English-speaking countries). 

Both  SOFTEN and HSOFTEN are written for a generic  CP/M  system 
and  do not require a Z80 CPU. The source code is  provided  for 
the  adventurous  who may wish to make other  changes  during  a 
conversion  or  perhaps  enlarge the buffers  to  minimize  disk 
accesses.   Both routines are based on a series  of  subroutines 
from   Eric   Meyer's  tutorial  on   CP/M   assembly   language 
programming.   The  tutorial is available  on  various  bulletin 
boards and should be referred to for additional details.

WordStar  is  a registered trademark of  MicroPro  International 
Corporation.   Comments and bug report messages can be left  for 
the author on Znode #45 (Houston) at (713) 937-8886.

                                   John Smaardyk
                                   February 6, 1988