FIXTEXT.

TXT

Nov 06, 1999

WIN95 AND WINNT NOTICE: As with most DOS-based utilities, this program doesn't understand the weird subdirectories, long filenames, invalid characters that are possible under Windows 95 and Windows/NT. Both operating systems alias long filenames into names like MYFILE~1.TXT and you will need to specify the aliased versions of file names to process them. If you're not sure what the pseudo-name is, use the "DIR /X" command in DOS to check. Under some file structure systems in NT, the program may not work at all. The FIXTEXT.EXE program applies a character-translation template to an entire text file. This allows you to change a whole bunch of characters at once. Features: * Can process text files of any size. * Can process DOS text files (lines ending with CR/LF), Mac text files (lines ending with CR), Unix text files (lines ending with LF), and fixed length files (lines of a fixed length without any CR or LF characters). * Can convert any of the above four types of text files to any of the other types of text files. * Automatically detects the type of input file if it's a standard text file (lines ending with CR/LF, CR alone, or LF alone). * Ideal utility to convert all Unix text files to DOS text files. * Can be used on binary files but using the /REPLACE option isn't exactly recommended in this case... * Can load a user-defined character-translation tables. * Character-translation tables can let you do things like: - Convert all lowercase characters to uppercase characters - Translate IBM graphics characters into standard ASCII text characters; this is very useful if you want to print the document and are tired of getting weird stuff printing out. * Can translate tab characters into spaces. * Can fix up underscores and other backspace characters. * Can remove leading and/or trailing spaces from lines. * Can remove blank lines from files. * Can create a file showing all lines that were changed. * Can translate single characters into multiple characters or remove them entirely. * The input file specification can include standard DOS wildcards or an external file (@listfile) containing the files to be processed (although either prohibits specifying an output file name). * Pressing escape stops the program early. Specifying parameters: Parameters for this program can be set in the following ways. The last setting encountered always wins: - Read from an *.INI file (see BRUCEINI.TXT file), - Through the use of an environmental variable (SET FIXTEXT=whatever), or - From the command line (see "Syntax" below)

FIXTEXT.TXT

Nov 06, 1999

The character translation file (lookup tables): FIXTEXT will process a character-translation (lookup) table if one is found. This table can be in your standard *.INI file (for example, FIXTEXT.INI) if desired or it can be a separate file specified using the /Linitfile parameter. A sample FIXTEXT.INI file is provided. You can modify this file or create your own. There is also a separate FIXTEXT.ISO file which can be copied over FIXTEXT.INI if so desired. It was done by Paul Rosenberg and converts the characters to characters of the ISO LATIN-1 character set which is what Windows uses. (Wayne Software has not actually verified the conversions used in this file.) If no *.INI file is found (or if "/-I" or "/INULL" is specified), the default translation table will be loaded. This one is identical to the original FIXTEXT.INI file and has these characteristics: - All characters in the decimal 032 to 125 range are left unchanged - Characters in decimal 24 to 27, and 176 to 223 are considered graphics characters and are translated into regular text characters, typically ".", "X", "x", "|", "-", and "+" - Decimal characters 248 to 250 and 254 are changed into asterisks ("*") - All other characters are translated into spaces As an example of the graphics character translation that's done, the following: +-+-+ | | | +-+-+ | | | +-+-+ +-+-+ | | | +-+-+ | | | +-+-+

becomes:

It may not look as good but it certainly prints better on most printers. The lookup table is an ASCII text file which consists of a series of lines in the following format: inchar = outstr where "inchar" is the character to change from and "outstr" is what to change the character to. Both portions can consist of regular non-space ASCII text characters (like "A" or "z") as well as hexadecimal values (in the form &Hxx) or decimal values (in the form \nnn). "outstr" can consist of 0 (the word "(NONE)"), 1, or 2 or more replacement characters while "inchar" can only represent a single character. You cannot use a space or equal sign in either "inchar" or "outstr"; use the hexadecimal or decimal representations instead. The table does not have to be in any specified order. Lines can end with "/*" followed by a comment if you want. Hexadecimal and decimal equivalents are explained in BRUCEHEX.TXT.

FIXTEXT.TXT Examples:

Nov 06, 1999

a = A /* Translate lowercase "a" into capital "A" \032 = _ /* Translate space (decimal 032, &H20 too) into underscore &H0c = <PAGE>\013\010 /* Translate page eject character into the word "<PAGE>" followed by carriage return/line feed \027 = \032 /* Translate escape character to a space \027 = (NONE) /* Remove excape characters entirely Since lines beginning with "/" are treated as command-line defaults, you must use \047 or &H2F if you want to override the definition of "/". Note that when characters are not translated into single characters, all of the single-character translations are performed first and then the remaining translations are performed in the order they were specified. So something like the following would result in some lines being changed twice: A = CAPITAL_A a = A In this case, all lowercase "a" characters would first be translated into an uppercase "A", and then the same character would then be translated into the string "CAPITAL_A".

FIXTEXT.TXT Syntax:

Nov 06, 1999

FIXTEXT { filespec | (filelist) | @listfile } { outspec [ /OVERWRITE | /-OVERWRITE | /OVERASK ] | /REPLACE } [ /n ] [ /TO CRLF | /TO CR | /TO LF | /TO n ] [ /TEXT | /BINARY ] [ /TRIM | /RTRIM | /LTRIM | /-TRIM ] [ /ZAPNULL ] [ /-FIXBS ] [ /-FIXTAB ] [ /EJECT=str ] [ /-EOF ] [ /Frptfile | /-F ] [ /Q | /Qn ] [ /Linitfile | /-L ] [ /MONO ] [ /Iinitfile | /-I ] [ /-ENV ] [ /? ] [ /?HEX ] "filespec" is the input file specification to process. and wildcard information if desired. Can include path

"(filelist)" allows you to specify multiple files to be processed from the command line. File names should be separated by spaces. They may include drive, path, and wildcard information. Remember that a command line in DOS cannot exceed 127 characters so you're limited as to how many different file specifications you can provide in this fashion. "@listfile" allows you to have a variety of file specifications saved in a text file named "listfile". Each line in the file should consist of one file specification, each of which can include a path and wildcards if desired. Blank lines and lines beginning with semi-colons, colons, or quotes are ignored. One caveat about the @listfile parameter: I had problems with the program reprocessing the same files twice. The subroutine would find the file, rewrite it, and then the new (modified) file would be detected as yet another file. This created a loop which did horrible things. As a result, the program tries to skip files that it's already handled. It does this by looking at the file name but, due to space limitations, it ignores the path of the file. So if you have a @listfile and it mentions two files named the same thing in two different subdirectories, the program will miss the second one. This applies to wildcarded files as well. Sorry about that! The only way to get around this is to have multiple @listfile's and invoke FIXTEXT multiple times. "outspec" is the name of the file to create. It can include a drive and path specification. You have to specify either an outspec or the /REPLACE option. If your input specification includes more than one file name (either through the use of wildcards or else by using the @listfile option), "outspec" must be an output file path, not an individual file name. Otherwise, it has to be an individual file name. "/OVERWRITE" says to overwrite the output file if it exists already. "/-OVERWRITE" says to abort if the output file exists already. "/OVERASK" says to prompt if the output file exists already; this is the default.

FIXTEXT.TXT

Nov 06, 1999

"/REPLACE" says to write the results to a temporary file and, if the program finds characters to change and runs successfully, to replace the original file with the fixed temporary file. The original file is renamed with a BAK extension if you use this option. You have to specify *either* an output file name or the /REPLACE option. "/n" specifies that the input file doesn't have any carriage return or feed indicators at all and that, in fact, lines are all fixed length. routine automatically detects the standard text files (lines end CR/LF, CR alone, or LF alone); only fixed-length input files require parameter. line The with this

"/TO CRLF" specifies that the output lines are to end with the standard DOS CR/LF combination. "/TO CR" specifies that the output lines are to end with the standard Mac CR character only. "/TO LF" specifies that the output lines are to end with the standard Unix LF character only. "/TO n" specifies that the output lines are to be written as fixed length records of line length n. "/TEXT" specifies that the file is a text file with definite lines. "/BINARY" says you want to process a binary file, with no definable lines. This is sometimes useful when you have a file in a native word processing format (like a WordPerfect file) and you want to dump it out as ASCII text. You'll lose the paragraph breaks (unless you're pretty good with the character-translation file but you'll get something at least. Invoking /BINARY automatically invokes /-TRIM, /-ZAPNULL, /-FIXBS, and /-FIXTAB. "/TRIM" says to remove all leading and trailing spaces from the lines. Initially defaults to "/RTRIM". "/RTRIM" removes all trailing spaces. This is initially the default. "/LTRIM" removes all leading spaces. Initially defaults to "/RTRIM". "/-TRIM" skips removing any leading or trailing spaces. "/ZAPNULL" says to kill off any blank lines found in the file (whether the blanks were created by one of your changes or not). Initially defaults to "/-ZAPNULL".

FIXTEXT.TXT

Nov 06, 1999

"/-FIXBS" says to not resolve backspace characters. These usually show up as solid rectangles with circles in them. "/FIXBS" is initially the default. "/FIXBS" says to resolve backspace characters. This is done by removing a pair of characters for each backspace. So "A", (BACKSPACE), "A", which might appear as overstriking on some printers, will come out as just a single "A". This is initially the default. "/-FIXTAB" says to not expand tab characters. The tab itself will still remain in your output file. If you wanted to replace it with a space or get rid of it entirely, go into FIXTEXT.INI and change \009 to be equal to \032 (space) or NULL (to get rid of it entirely. "/FIXTAB" is initially the default. "/FIXTAB" says to expand tab characters. When it runs into a tab character, it figures there are tab positions set every eight characters and it expands the lines with spaces to make the tabs correspond to these positions. This is initially the default. "/EJECT=str" says to replace the page eject character (decimal 12) another string. This replacement can be 0 characters (if you "/EJECT=(NONE)"), 1 character, or 2 or more characters. The string include text, decimal, or hexadecimal characters (see BRUCEHEX.TXT). /EJECT=str specification overrides any specification in character-translation tables. with say can Any the

"/-EOF" says to not automatically add an end-of-file indicator at the end of the output file. "/EOF" is initially the default. "/EOF" ends each file with an end-of-file (decimal 26) indicator. This is initially the default. "/Frptfile" specifies the file name to write out the results of this program to. By default, no report is created. If you want one, however, it will include the date, time, and file name being processed as well as all lines that had problems. The file is appended to each time so it contains a running log of what you've run. You can change this file name to something else (and provide drive and path information if desired) or you can say /-F and avoid creating the file altogether. "/-F" says to skip producing the changed-line file entirely. initially the default. "/Q" turns off the line-by-line status messages. "/Qn" shows a status message every n-number of lines/blocks. is "/Q25". The default This is

FIXTEXT.TXT

Nov 06, 1999

"/L" says to read all character-translation codes from your /Iinitfile file. This is initially the default. "/Linitfile" says that the "Character-translation" codes are found in a file other than from the default "/Iinitfile" file. This is primarily useful if you want to have a master *.INI file and a separate code lookup table. "/-L" skips loading any character translation tables at all. The program just does tab expansions and changing text formats (say, DOS text into Unix text) then. "/MONO" (or "/-COLOR") does not try to override screen colors. defaults to "/COLOR". "/COLOR" (or "/-MONO") allows screen colors to be overridden. initially the default. Initially This is

"/Iinitfile" says to read an initialization file with the file name "initfile". The file specification *must* contain a period. Initfiles are described in the BRUCEINI.TXT file. Initially defaults to "/IFIXTEXT.INI". "/-I" (or "/INULL") says to skip loading the character-translation table and initialization file. In this case, the default character-translation table is used. See the "Character-translation table" discussion above. "/ENV" says to look for %var% occurrences in the command line and try to resolve any apparent environmental variable references. See BRUCEINI.TXT for more information. This is initially the default. "/-ENV" says to skip resolving apparent %var% occurrences in the command line. Initially defaults to "/ENV". "/?" or "/HELP" or "HELP" shows you the syntax for the command. "/?HEX" gives you a hexadecimal and decimal conversion table.

FIXTEXT.TXT Return codes:

Nov 06, 1999

FIXTEXT returns the following ERRORLEVEL codes: 0 = no problems, changes made 1 = no problems, no changes made 249 = non-text file encountered despite /TEXT option 254 = program aborted 255 = syntax problems, file not found, or /? requested Author: This program was written by Bruce Guthrie of Wayne Software. It is free for use and redistribution provided relevant documentation is kept with the program, no changes are made to the program or documentation, and it is not bundled with commercial programs or charged for separately. People who need to bundle it in for-sale packages must pay a $50 registration fee to "Bruce Guthrie" at the following address. Additional information about this and other Wayne Software programs can be found in the file BRUCE.TXT which should be included in the original ZIP file. The recent change history for this and the other programs is provided in the HISTORY.ymm file which should be in the same ZIP file where "y" is replaced by the last digit of the year and "mm" is the two digit month of the release; HISTORY.611 came out in November 1996. This same naming convention is used in naming the ZIP file (FIXTXymm.ZIP) that this program was included in. Comments and suggestions can also be sent to: Bruce Guthrie Wayne Software 113 Sheffield St. Silver Spring, MD 20910 e-mail: WayneSof@erols.com fax: (301) 588-8986 http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/2414 or find through http://www.erols.com/waynesof Please provide an Internet e-mail address on all correspondence.