Broff and a proposed net project

[mullen at nrl-css]

From:  Preston Mullen <mullen at nrl-css>

    Date: 1 Aug 83 21:30:34-PDT (Mon)
    From: decvax!genrad!mit-eddie!zrm at ucb-vax
    Subject: Re: Broff and a proposed net project

    What to do? One possiblilty would be to keep formatting information in
    a separate companion file. If the free text gets bashed, then the
    editor tries its best to figure out how it was bashed (the companion
    file could be a superset of the free text, including its contents plus
    formatting info) and rebuilds the companion file....

That's sort of how FORTUNE (tm?) systems do it.  (They run Unix (tm) with
a menu-based shell -- you can also escape into a Bourne shell.  One
application is a Wang (tm?) word processor look-alike.  The keyboard even
has all the special keys in the same configuration as Wang's.)

They keep three (two?) files for each word processor document.  I don't
know exactly what's in each file, but I think one contains only "format
lines" (line spacing and tab settings).  I do not believe that they
duplicate the "free text" in two files, one with imbedded formatting
controls and one without.  (One might assume that the word processor
would typically be used as a self-contained subsystem; it then wouldn't
pay to always keep two versions of the text.)  I do believe they have
programs that can map the text with imbedded formatting information
into an easily-readable plain text file, but I did not actually see such
programs.  (I imagine you could figure out the representation and write
such a program yourself in a couple of hours.)

This is what I recall from a demo of the system and a few minutes of
browsing in its files.  This is not an endorsement of any product, and
I am not connected with any of the companies that make or sell the
aforementioned products.