Memo - A Text Formatting Program

This document serves as the user manual for "MEMO," a text formatting program developed by Gregory Ruth at the MIT Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, released on May 12, 1971, for the PS/8 system.

MEMO was designed to allow users to produce neatly formatted, paged text with defined margins from free-form input with minimal effort. It is a simpler derivative of the "RUNOFF" program used on larger systems like CTSS and MULTICS. The program requires a PDP-8 or 8/I, an ASR-33 terminal, and access to Dectape or Disk storage.

Key features and usage details include:

• Input: The program processes ASCII files created by an editor. Input files contain text, formatting commands (preceded by a period), and a Shift-L character for the end-of-file marker.
• Formatting: By default, text is right and left-justified. Users can specify syllable breaks using an up-arrow to improve word distribution on lines.
• Commands: The program includes various in-text commands to manage page breaks, line spacing, centering, tab settings, and header/footer page numbering.
• Operational Options: The program supports command-line options for pausing output between pages or before starting, to facilitate manual control during printing on an ASR-33 terminal.