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AA-3337B-TC

July 1975

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Document:	RSTS/E RUNOFF Users Guide
Order Number:	AA-3337B-TC
Revision:	0
Pages:	40
Original Filename:	http://bitsavers.org/pdf/dec/pdp11/rsts_e/V10/AA-3337B-TC_RSTS_E_RUNOFF_Users_Guide_Jul1975.pdf

OCR Text

RUNOFF User's Guide
Order No_ OeC-ll-URUNA-8-0

RSTS/E
RUNOFF User's Guide
Order No. OeC-ll-UAUNA-8-0

AA-3337B-!C

O~~er

additional copies as ~irec~ed on ~e Software
Information paqe at the bacx af thi~ ~ccument.

digital equipment. corporation· mO\jncJr"d mosscchuset.ts

First Printing, September 1974
First Revision, July 1975

The information in this document is subject to change without notice
and should not be construed as a commitment by Digital Equipment
Corporation. Digital Equipment Corporation assumes no responsibility
tor any errors that may appear in this document.
'rhe software described in this document is furnished under a license

and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such
license.
Digital Equipment Corporation assumes no responsibility for the use cr
reliability of its software on equipment that is not supplied by
DIGITAL.

1974, 1975 by Digital Equipment Corporation

The postage prepaid READER'S COMMENTS form on the last page of this
document requests the user's critical evaluation to assist us in pre·
paring future documentation.

The following are trademarks of Digital Equipment Corporation:

DIGITAL
DEC
PDP
DECOS
tJNIBUS
COMPU'l'ER LABS
COw.r!:X
DOT

oECCOMM

DECsysteID-10
DEC tape
DIBOL
EJ)O'SYS'l'EM
PLIP CHIP
FOCAL

INDAC
LAB-a

MASSBO'S
OMHI:aoS
OS/8
PHA
RSTS
RSX

TYPESET-a
TYPESET-10
'l'YPESET-ll

2/77-17
ii

CONTENTS

PREFACE

1.0

INTRODUCTION

2.0

ON-LINE OPERATION

3.0

SOURCE FILE FORMAT

3.1

CONTENTS OF SOURCE FILE

3.2

RUNOFF COMMAND FORMAT

3.3

FORMATTING THE TEXT

3.4

CASE INFORMATION

3.5
3.5.1
3.5.2
3.5.3
3.5.4
3.5.5
3.5.6

SPECIAL CHARACTERS

Ampersand
Number Sign
Less-than
Greater-than
Percent
Outputting Special Characters

7
7
7
7
8
8
8

4.0

COMMANDS

4.1

TEXT FORMATTING COMMANDS

4.2

PAGE FORMATTING COMMANDS

4.3

MODE SETTING COMMANDS

4.4

PARAMETER SETTING COMMANDS

5.0

ERROR PROCESSING

iii

PREFACE

This updated manual describes RUNOFF,
a system library program
RUNOFF is a
distributed with the RSTS/E Version V06A system.
It is
formatting program that aids in the production of documents.
recommended that the user refer to the RSTS-II System User's Guide and
the RSTS/E Documentation Directory for further information about the
system.
Section I is an introduction and explanation of the
inexperienced RUNOFF user.

program

Section 2 provides a step-by-step guide for
including input and output file specification.

executing

Section 3 lists the format for I/O files, commands, case
and some optional modes of operation.

for

the

RUNOFF,

information,

Section 4 lists all RUNOFF commands and their abbreviations.
This
chapter can serve as a reference for the experienced RUNOFF user.
There are four categories of commands:
page formatting,
text
formatting, mode setting, and parameter setting.
In each command
specification the function,
format,
initial or default setting,
duration, and disabling command (if there is one) are described.
Section 5 describes RUNOFF error processing and the errors
be encountered.

which

can

Provided in the standard system library are two files:
RUNOFF.RNO and
RUNOFF. DOC.
The former
is an ASCII file containing RUNOFF commands
and textual material. The latter is a RUNOFF output file containing
the formatted text.
The user can compare the listings of these two
files to see the effect of various RUNOFF commands.

1.0

INTRODUCTION

RUNOFF is a BASIC-PLUS program implemented on the RSTS/E system to aid
in the preparation of textual materials.
The user can prepare
material on any RSTS/E terminal, and write it into a file using the
EDIT program to insert text. The file contains textual material along
with RUNOFF commands which are denoted by a period at the beginning of
the
line.
These
commands
contain
all case and formatting
instructions.
RUNOFF then reproduces the file according to command
specifications,
performing
all
formatting
and case shifting,
justification, page numbering and titling, indexing and footnoting as
directed.
RUNOFF commands do not, of course, appear in the final
output.
Files prepared for use with RUNOFF can be edited and corrected easily.
Material can be added or deleted, and unchanged material need not be
retyped. After a set of changes is made, the program can be executed
to produce a new copy which is properly paged and formatted.
Documentation can thus be updated as necessary without extensive
retyping.

2.0

ON-LINE OPERATION

RUNOFF is used after a file has been created containing both textual
material and RUNOFF commands. Like most RSTS system programs, RUNOFF
is initiated by the "RUN" command to the monitor. The user types "RUN
$RUNOFF." The program first responds with its title and version
number, and then asks:
Source File?
The source file designation (device name,
file name and extension)
must then be typed. The default extension for RUNOFF source files is
.RNO. The default input device is the keyboard (KB:).
If the source
file designation is typed terminated by pressing ESCAPE (or ALTMODE),
a default output file with the same file name and
.DOC extension is
assumed, underscoring will be done in SEPARATE mode, form feed
characters will not be simulated, and there will be no pause.
If a
carriage return terminates the source designation, the program then
asks:
Output File?
The output file designation (device name, file name and extension)
must be typed. The default output device is the keyboard (KB:), which
may be limited in capabilities (e.g., upper-case only).
Alternately,
a disk file name or other device and file name may be given, and the
final image will be written into it. The default extension for RUNOFF
output files is .DOC.
An optional switch can be appended to either the source or output file
designation to QUEue the output file for printing. The switch name is
QUE (just Q is sufficient);
it is separated from the file designation
by a slant (I) character. The value of the switch, separated from the
name by a colon (:) or equals
(=)
character is the line printer
designator
(LPn:)
and switches as in a QUE command (see the RSTS-II
System User's Guide).
For example,
Output File? MONTH.RPT/QUE:LPI:/AFTER:18:00
A second optional switch can be appended to the output
file
designation.
The ICONVERT switch causes certain characters in the
output file to be converted to different characters. The switch name
is CONVERT
(just C is sufficient);
it is separated from the output
designation by a slant
(I)
character.
The value of the switch,
separated from the name by a colon (:) or equals (=) character, is the
specification of the file containing the conversion information.
For
example,
Output File?

ABC/CONVERT=CNVRT.OUT

As a result, RUNOFF reads the file CNVRT.OUT on the current user
account in the public structure to obtain the conversion information.
The conversion file must be an ASCII file with one or more lines, each
terminated by a RETURN character. Each line must contain one and only
one pair of character codes;
the codes are separated by a comma. The
codes are the decimal values of the ASCII characters involved in the
conversion. The first code of a pair denotes the character in the
output file which RUNOFF is to convert. The second code of a pair is
the character to be substituted in the output file for every
occurrence of the specified character.

The ICONVERT switch is valuable if the RUNOFF output device does not
have a special character required in the text. For example, if the
output device has no opening and closing brackets
([ and ]), the
following two ·lines in the conversion file cause a substitution.
91,32
93,32
(decimal value 32)
in the
RUNOFF substitutes the space character
output for every occurrence of the opening and closing brackets
(decimal values 91 and 93). After output to the hard copy device, the
desired characters can be manually inserted in the space generated.
When the output file designation has been entered, the program asks:
Underscore (B, L, S or N)?
Answer L (LINE) for a line printer with underlining or for files that
will eventually be copied to such a line printer. This causes
underscoring (where specified by the ampersand (&)
character)
to be
performed by overprinting an underline.
B (BACKSPACE) is used for a
terminal such as a 2741 Selectric typewriter.
Underscoring is
performed by outputting a backspace-then-underline following each
underscored character.
S
(FOLLOWING)
causes underscoring to be
performed by minus-sign
(-) characters on a following line. N (NO)
causes underscoring requests to be disregarded.
NO is the default
condition if this question is not answered and the carriage is
returned.
When the response to the Underscore question is other than N, RUNOFF
underlines text where the underscore special character (&) is in
effect in the input file.
Imbedded spaces, unless they are quoted,
are not underlined.
The response to the Underscore question can
contain a switch to include underlining of imbedded spaces in the
text.
The switch name is SPACES
(just S is sufficient);
it is
separated from the response by a slant (I) character. For example.
Underscore (B, L, S or N) ?
As a result of appending the
characters in the input file

ISPACES

L/SPACES
switch,

the

following

source

A&<RSTS-ll ASYSTEM AUSER'S AGUIDE\&
are printed as follows
RSTS-ll System User's Guide
In this manner, the blank space between words in a multiple word title
can be underlined without having to insert quoted spaces. After the
Underscore question is answered, the program next asks the question
concerning form feeds.
Simulate Form Feed (Y or N)?

The user must reply Y or N.
NO
(N)
.is normal and means that a
form-feed character (control-L) will be used to advance the output to
the top of a page. This mode is used for line printers.
NO is the
default condition.
YES (Y) means that the program advances to a new
page by outputting the appropriate number of ,line-feed characters.
This· must be used with any device that does not have automatic
mechanical page advancing.
If output is to the terminal
(KB:),
the
program then asks:
Pause?
A YES (Y) answer instructs the program to stop at the top of each page
to allow the paper to be positioned manually. The bell rings if the
terminal has one~
the user must type carriage return to resume
printing.
This mode is appropriate for typing the output onto pages
of duplicating masters or other non-continuous forms.
If this
question is not answered and the carriage is returned, no pause is the
default condition.
After RUNOFF has completed a job, the program asks for another source
file.
The user may exit from the program and return to the Monitor by
typing either CTRL/Z (control-Z) or CTRL/C (control-C),
For information about other RSTS/E system programs
procedures, see the RSTS-ll System User's Guide.

logout

3.0

SOURCE FILE FORMAT

3.1

CONTENTS OF SOURCE FILE

The source file contains the textual material which is to appear on
the final copy along with information specifying formatting.
Upper
and lower case information can also be supplied so that copy can be
prepared on the Teletype or other such device which can normally input
only upper case letters. All command information consists of regular
ASCII printing characters so that a listing of the source file can be
examined if the final copy is not exactly as desired.

3.2

RUNOFF COMMAND FORMAT

All material in the source file is taken to be source text except
those lines beginning with a period. A line beginning with a period
is assumed to be a RUNOFF command, and must match one of those listed
in this manual.
The commands provide formatting information and
control various optional modes of operation. Only as many characters
as necessary to uniquely specify a command need be included. One- to
three- character abbreviations are available for most commands.
Numeric arguments can be separated by spaces,
tabs, or commas.
Numeric arguments preceded by + or - can be used in CENTER, NUMBER,
LEFT MARGIN, and RIGHT MARGIN commands, to increment or decrement
prior or assumed values.
Multiple commands are permitted on a single line if separated by
semicolons
(:).
Comments may follow commands if the comments are
preceded by an exclamation point (1). Neither multiple commands nor
comments are possible on commands with text arguments.
Either text or
another command may follow the semi-colon.
If a command follows,
the
period is a sufficient separator and the semi-colon may be omitted.

3.3

FORMATTING THE TEXT

The text is usually filled and justified as it is processed. That is,
the program FILLs a line by adding successive words from the source
text until one more word would cause the right margin to be exceeded.
The line is then JUSTIFYed by making the word spacings larger until
the last word in the line exactly meets the right margin.
A double
space normally follows a period, exclamation point, question mark,
colon or semi-colon, provided it is immediately preceded by two
alphabetic characters.
This feature can be disabled by a RUNOFF
command.
In fill mode, spaces and carriage returns occurring in the source text
are treated as word separators only. Multiple separators are ignored.
Some commands cause a BREAK in the output. A BREAK means that the
current line is output without justification, and the next word is
positioned at the beginning of the next line. This occurs at the ends
of paragraphs, for example.

Occasionally, the user may wish to reproduce the source text exactly,
which is done by disabling filling and justification. The program can
also be set to fill but not to justify, in which case the output will
be normal except that lines will not be iustified to the right margin.
The program advances to new pages as necessary, and places the title
(if given) and the page number at the top of each page. The user can
explicitly call for a page advance where desired, and can inhibit the
occurrence of a page advance within specified material.

3.4

CASE INFORMATION

Specification of case for files prepared on an upper cas€ terminal
is
done with two characters -- circumflex (A, shift-N) and back-slash (\,
shift-L) .
The appearance of a circumflex
causes
the
letter
immediately following to be transmitted in upper case. The appearance
of a back-slash causes the letter immediately following
to be
converted to lower case.
Any letter not preceded by one of these
characters is transmitted in the current mode. The mode is initially
upper case and is changed by the occurrence of two successive case
control characters or by the LOWER CASE command.
Two circumflexes
(AA) cause the mode to be set to upper case, and two back-slashes (\\)
cause the mode to be set to lower case. This usage corresponds to the
use of the shift and shift-lock keys on a typewriter. The following
example (lower case is the current mode) shows the use of the case
control characters:
AHERE IS A ASAMPLE ASENTENCE IN AAUPPER CASE\\ AND LOWER CASE.
becomes:
Here is a Sample Sentence in UPPER CASE and lower case.
NOTE
Case conversion takes place only on
ASCII codes 65 to 90 decimal, that is,
the upper case letters.
Any actual
lower case letters
(codes 97 to 122
decimal) appearing in the source will be
transmitted unchanged.
If the source is
prepared on a device such as a Model 37
Teletype or 2741 Selectric typewriter
which produces letters of the proper
case, the mode can be left unchanged
from its original upper case setting.

3.5

SPECIAL CHARACTERS

3.5.1

Ampersand (&)

This character is used to specify underscoring, and when typed
For example:
causes the character following it to be underscored.

&s&o&f&t&w&a&r&e
becomes:
software
in the output.
The appearance of an ampersand preceded by a circumflex
(A&)
causes
the underlining of all following characters except for blanks.
(If
underlining of blanks is required, the /SPACES switch can be typed
with the response to the Underscore question of RUNOFF.) The usage of
the circumflex is essentially a shift-lock of the underscoring
operation.
The appearance of ampersand preceded by back-slash (\&)
disables this mode.
For example:
A&PLATO\& was a very A&wise \&man.
becomes:
PLATO was a very wise man.

3.5.2

Number Sign (#)

As it is occasionally necessary to include spaces in the text which
are not word separators, RUNOFF interprets the number sign (#) as a
quoted space.
It prints as exactly one space in the output, can not
be expanded for purposes of justifying the line, and can not be
interpreted as the end of a line.

3.5.3

Less-Than «)*

This character preceding a word capitalizes the entire word up to the
first space.
This is the same as preceding the word with AA and
following it with \\.
For example, if the current mode is lower case,
<DIGITAL OF

MAYNARD , <MA

becomes:
DIGITAL of Maynard, MA
in the output.

* This special character is initially disabled. See the
of the FLAGS and NO FLAGS commands in Section 4.4.
7

descriptions

3.5.4

Greater-Than (»*

This special character enters the word immediately following it (up to
the first space)
into the index, including any case shifts that are
included in the text.

3.5.5

Percent (%)*

It is occasionally useful to create special symbols in the output by
superimposing one character over another.
For example, the slant (I)
character superimposed on the equals (=)
character creates the not
equals symbol
(I).
The action is referred to as overstrike and is
denoted by the percent character (%) in the RUNOFF input file.
If the FLAGS OVERSTRIKE command is in effect and a percent character
appears in the text, overstriking occurs in the output.
The character
immediately following the percent is superimposed on the character
preceding the percent.
The method of overstriking
is determined by the
response
to the
Underscore question.
(See Section 2.0 for
a description of the
Underscore question.) RUNOFF can supe~impose only one character on any
given character.
Since RUNOFF treats the underscore character (_) as
an overstriking character, a character can not both be underscored and
have another character superimposed on it.
For compatibility with previous implementations of RUNOFF, the percent
special character is initially disabled.
See the descriptions of the
FLAGS and NO FLAGS commands in Section 4.4.

3.5.6

Outputting Special Characters

To allow the appearance of the special characters
(circumflex,
back-slash,
ampersand,
number
sign,
less-than, greater-than, or
percent in the output, the character underline (--) is used as a quote
character.
The character immediately following an underline is transmitted to the
output with no formatting effect.
The underline
itself is thus
another case requiring quoting.
The following eight cases occur:
becomes

* This special character is initially disabled. See the
of the FLAGS and NO FLAGS commands in Section 4.4.

descriptions

4.0

COMMANDS

The RSTS/E RUNOFF commands are recognized if they occur at the
beginning of a line started with a period. Any line in the source
file beginning with a period is assumed to contain one of
these
commands.
If it does not, an error diagnostic is typed and the line
is ignored. Some commands take one or more decimal arguments.
The
letter n is used to represent this argument, which in some cases may
be negative. These numbers are separated from the command by a space
or a tab.
Note that only as many characters as needed to uniquely specify a
There are abbreviations for most commandsi
command need be typed.
the abbreviations are listed next to the commands in the sections that
follow.
Multiple commands are permitted on a single line if separated
by a semi-colon (i).
Finally, in reading each command description, note that some commands
must appear directly before the line of text to which they apply.
For
example, the CENTER command applies only to the next line and causes
whatever is on that line to be centered. Also note the duration of
each command.
In most cases, if a command is permanent, the disabling
command is listed with it.
The commands implemented in RUNOFF on the RSTS/E system are sufficient
to format most documents, memos, or other textual material.
RUNOFF automatically performs two operations to improve the format and
readability of text. The first operation is filling a line.
RUNOFF
extracts words from the source text and creates a line of predefined
length in the output text. Words are filled in the output line until
the addition of another word causes the line length to be exceeded.
In filling a line, RETURN and LINE FEED characters in the source text
are discarded and a RETURN and LINE FEED pair are inserted after the
last character in the filled line. This filling operation ensures
that each line contains as many words as possible.
The second operation is justifying a line.
RUNOFF adds blank
characters between words of a filled line to align the last word on
each line with the right margin of the output text. Justification is
practical with filled lines only. RUNOFF, therefore, does not justify
lines automatically when filling is disabled.
Some RUNOFF operations are initially enabled or disabled as default
conditions each time a new source file is processed. The default
condition acts as if one of the RUNOFF commands had been executed from
the source file.
The defaults can be altered by the presence of the
appropriate alternate command.
The RUNOFF commands and default
conditions (if any) are summarized in Table 4-1.

Table 4-1
Summary of RUNOFF Commands and Defaults
Short
Form

Command

Ini tial
Default

Argument

AUTOPARAGRAPH

.AP

.NAP

BLANK

BREAK

.BR

CENTER

COMMENT

. COMMENT ccc ... ccc

DATE

.ND

FIGURE

.FG

FILL

·F

FIRST TITLE

.FT

FLAGS

.FL

name c

FOOTNOTE

.FN

HEADER

.HD

MIXED

Comments

is
If n
used.

omitted,

current
I f n is omitted,
paper width is used, (see
SIZE
command. )
. PAGE
.CENTRE is also val id.

See NO FLAGS.

Ix can be UPPER, LOWER, or
MIXED.

INDENT

·I

INDEX

iii. .. iii

JUSTIFY

LEFT MARGIN

· LH

LOWER CASE

· LC

.UC

NO AUTOPARAGRAPH

.NAP

NO DATE

.ND

NO FILL

.NF

NO FLAGS

.NFL

name

< , > I %

NO HEADER

.NHD

.HD
HIXED

NO JUSTIFY

.NJ

NO NUHBER

.NNH

.NM

CAPITALIZE,
OVERSTRIKE
disabled.

INDEX,
and
ini tially

Table 4-1 (cont.)
Summary of RUNOFF Commands and Defaults
Short
Form

Argument

Initial
Default

NO PERIOD

.NPR

.PR

NUMBER

.NM

PAGE

.PG

PAGE SIZE

.PS

n,m

58,60

PARAGRAPH

n,v,t

5,-1,2

PERIOD

.PR

PRINT INDEX

.PX

RIGHT MARGIN

.RM

SKIP

Command

Comments

PAPER SIZE also valid.

Must be last
file.

If n

command

omitted,

used.

SPACING

.SP

SUBTITLE

.ST

sss ... sss

blank

.SUBTTL also valid.

TAB STOPS

.TS

n,n, ... ,n

If n is omitted, every 8
is used, up to 32 allowed

TEST PAGE

.TP

TITLE

.TITLE

ttt .•• ttt

blank

UPPER CASE

.UC

4.1

TEXT FORMATTING COMMANDS

The commands in this section affect text formatting and paging.

BREAK
.BREAK or .BR
Causes a break, i.e., the current line is output with
no justification and the next word of the source text
is placed at the beginning of the next line.

SKIP
.SKIP n or .S n
Causes a break after which n x (line spacing) lines are
left blank.
If the skip would leave room for less than
two printed lines in the page, the output is advanced
to the top of the next page.
If n is omitted, its
value is assumed to be 1.

BLANK
.BLANK n or .8 n
Exactly like SKIP, except that n, rather than n x (line
spacing),
lines are specified.
BLANK is used where
space is to be left independent of the line spacing;
SKIP is used where the space left should be relative to
the size of line spacing.
Here, too, the default value
of n is 1.

FIGURE
.FIGURE n or .FG n
Like BLANK, except that if less than n lines remain on
the current page, the page is advanced and n blank
lines are left at the top of the new page.
Principally
used where it is desired to leave room for a figure to
be drawn in manually.

TEST PAGE
.TEST PAGE n or .TP n
Causes a break followed by a conditional page advance.
If there are n or more lines remaining on the current
page, no advance is made and no lines are skipped;
otherwise, the page is advanced. This command should
be used to ensure that the following n lines are all
placed on the same page.

PAGE
.PAGE or .PG
Causes a break and an unconditional advance to a new
page. This command does nothing if the current page is
empty.
It performs titling and numbering as for
automatic page advance.

PARAGRAPH
.PARAGRAPH n,v,t or .P n,v,t
The number n is optional and,
if present, sets the
number of spaces which paragraphs are to be indented.
The initial setting is 5.
As with INDENT which
follows, paragraphs may be indented to the left of the
left margin by using a negative value of n.
The
parameter
v
determines
vertical spacing between
paragraphs. A value of I specifies single spacing,
2
specifies double spacing, and so on, up to a maximum of
5.
If v is specified as -1 (the original, or default,
setting), line spacing between paragraphs is {m+l)/2,
where m is the regular line spacing. The number t,
if
present,
causes an automatic TEST PAGE t
before
beginning the paragraph. This parameter is initially
set to 2.

The PARAGRAPH command causes a BREAK, followed by
vertical line spacing according to the value of v. The
following line is indented according to the value of n.

The parameters set by the PARAGRAPH command
their values until they are explicitly changed.

retain

FOOTNOTE
.FOOTNOTE n or .FN n
Allocates n x (line spacing) lines at the bottom of the
current page for a footnote (1).
If insufficient room
remains on the current page, space will be allocated at
the bottom of the
following page.
The text for the
footnote begins on the line following the command,
and
it may contain any appropriate commands (e.g., CENTER,
SKIP) necessary to format the footnote.
The
footnote
is terminated by a line beginning with an exclamation
point (the remainder of which is ignored).
The lines
delimited by this line and the FOOTNOTE command are put
into a buffer to be processed when the output moves to
within the designated number of lines from the bottom
of the page.
If a page has multiple footnotes
the
allocated space is the sum of the allocations for all
footnotes assigned to the page.
The user must
include
his choice of footnote-designating symbols within the
text.
This command does not cause a break.
The current values of margins,
justification, case
lock,
spacing and
fill
are saved and restored after
processing of footnotes;
therefore,
a
footnote may
contain commands which change these parameters, and the
effect will be limited to the footnote text.
The actual space taken by the footnote may be more or
less than that specified by n.
The n merely allocates
space and should be the user's best guess.
If it is
considerably off,
the footnote lines may overflow the
page, or extra space may be left at the bottom.
The
user may wish to adjust n after examining a first draft
printout.

INDEX
. INDEX iii ... iii or .X iii ... iii
This command treats the remaining text
(iii. .. iii)
on
the line as a key word or words and adds it, along with
the current page number, to the internal index buffer.
The command does not cause a break.
It must appear
immediately before the item to be indexed.
A key word
or words may be indexed more than once;
all pages are
indicated. when the index is printed.
An INDEX command
must accompany each occurrence of the key word or words
to appear in the printed index.

(1) This is a footnote.
This text and the dividing line above it were
specified by text and commands following a FOOTNOTE 5 command.

PRINT INDEX
.PRINT INDEX or .PX
Causes a break followed by a printout of the entire
contents of the index buffer.
Entries are printed in
alphabetical order, and are set against the left margin
using regular line spacing, except that a blank line is
left between entries of different first letters.
The
number of the first page on which each entry appeared
is put on the same line as the entry, beginning at the
middle of the line (midway between the left and right
margins). Additional page numbers for multiple entries
follow,
separated by commas.
The index buffer is left
empty.
The PRINT INDEX command must follow all other commands
and text in the source file because any data after the
PRINT INDEX is not processed.
The INDEX and PRINT INDEX commands are operational only
if the RSTS SORT package is available in the system
library.
If the SORT package is not available,
the
PRINT
INDEX command results in an error message
indicating that the command is unavailable.

INDENT
.INDENT n or .1 n
Causes a break and sets the beginning of the next line
n spaces to the right of the left margin.
The number
n, if negative, causes the line to begin to the left of
the left margin (useful for numbered paragraphs).

CENTER
.CENTER n or .CENTRE n or .C n
This command causes a break after which the following
line in the source file is centered. The centering is
over the column n/2, independent of the setting of the
left and right margins.
If n is missing, it is assumed
to be the paper width, initially set to 60
(See PAPER
SIZE command) .

COMMENT
.COMMENT ccc ... ccc
This command is treated as a comment and
ignored.

otherwise

4.2

PAGE FORMATTING COMMANDS

The commands in this section control page headings.

TITLE
.TITLE ttt ••• ttt or .T ttt ••. ttt
This command treats the remaining text on the line as
the title.
This text appears at the top of all
subsequent pages, at position 0 on the second line with
the page number. The title is initially blank.

SUBTITLE
.SUBTITLE sss •.. sss or .SUBTTL sss .•. sss or
.ST sss .•• sss
This command treats the remaining text on the line as
the
subtitle.
This
text
appears on the line
immediately following the title and page number.
The
subtitle is initially blank.
The subtitle is not
indented, but may contain leading quoted spaces (#)
to
achieve the same effect, if desired.

NUMBER
.NUMBER n or .NM n
Turns on page numbering (normal) and, if n is supplied,
resets the current page number to n.

NO NUMBER
.NO NUMBER or .NNM
Turns off page numbering (disables the NUMBER command) .
Pages continue to be counted, so the normal page number
appears if numbering is re-enabled.

DATE
.DATE or .0
Prints the current system date right-justified directly
under the page number in each page header.
If the page
number does not appear, the date is not printed.
The
initial, or default, setting is NO DATE.

NO DATE
.NO DATE or .ND
Suppresses printing of the current system date in the
page header.
The initial, or default, setting is NO
DATE.

HEADER
.HEADER x or .HD x
Enables the printing of headers. Sets the word "page"
in the page header to either all upper case (PAGE), all
lower case (page), or mixed (Page). Thus, x can have
one of three values:
UPPER,
LOWER, or MIXED. The
initial, or default, setting is MIXED.

NO HEADER
.NO HEADER or .NHD
Stops the printing of page headers; namely, no title,
subtitle, page number, or spacing appear at the top of
the page. Thus, the first line of every page will
always be blank.

FIRST TITLE
.FIRST TITLE or .FT
Causes the page header with TITLE and SUBTITLE to be
printed at the top of the first page. This command
must precede any text.

4.3

MODE SETTING COMMANDS

Mode setting commands affect document appearance, i.e., case, filling,
justifying. The effect of these commands continues until reset by the
corresponding opposite commands.

LOWER CASE
.LOWER CASE or .LC
Sets the case lock to lower case.
Equivalent to \\.
All letters are output as lower case unless a case
shift is indicated.

UPPER CASE
.UPPER CASE or .UC
Sets the case lock to upper case.
Equivalent to
Any upper case letters in the source file are output as
upper case;
this is the initial setting.
NOTE
Since case control applies only to upper case
characters in the source file (ASCII codes 65
to 90 decimal), UPPER CASE mode causes the
text to be reproduced as it is in the source
file.
This is especially useful
if the
source is created on a
terminal that can
input both upper and lower case characters.

PERIOD
.PERIOD or .PR
Causes insertion of at least two spaces after certain
punctuation
characters
(period, colon, semi-colon,
exclamation point, and question mark)
in the text.
This is the initial mode.

NO PERIOD
.NO PERIOD or .PR
Disables the insertion of the
punctuation characters.

extra

space

after

the

JUSTIFY
.JUSTIFY or .J
Causes a break and sets subsequent output lines
justified. This is the initial setting.

NO JUSTIFY
.NO JUSTIFY or .NJ
Causes a break and prevents justification of subsequent
output lines. Disables JUSTIFY mode.

FILL
.FILL or .F
Causes a break and specifies that subsequent output
lines be filled. Sets the justification mode to that
specified by the last appearance of JUSTIFY or NO
JUSTIFY. This is the initial setting.

NO FILL
.NO FILL or .NF
Causes a break and prevents filling of subsequent
output lines. Also turns off justification.
NOTE
The nofill-nojustify mode need be used only
where there are several lines of material to
be copied exactly.
A single line example
will not require using these commands if
there are breaks before and after.
Normally FILL and NO FILL are used
to turn
both filling and justification on and off.
It is usually desirable to do both.
A
subsequent
appearance of a justification
command will override the fill
command,
however.
Because of the action of FILL,
a single
occurrence of NO JUSTIFY will cause the
remainder of the file to be unjustified, with
filling as specified.
In order to justify
but not fill
(not recommended), a JUSTIFY
command must follow any NO FILL command.

AUTOPARAGRAPH
.AUTOPARAGRAPH or .AP
Causes any line that starts with a space,
including
totally blank lines,
to be considered the start of a
new paragraph. This allows normally typed text to
create justified text without speriial commands. A
blank line followed by a command is not considered to
begin a paragraph. This mode is initially turned off.

NO AUTOPARAGRAPH
.NO AUTOPARAGRAPH or .NAP
Disables the AUTOPARAGRAPH mode.
setting.

This is

the

initial

4.4

PARAMETER SETTING COMMANDS

These commands specify margins,. spacing,
special flag characters.

paper

size,

and

define

PAGE SIZE
.PAGE SIZE n,m or .PAPER SIZE n,m or .PS n,m
Sets the number of lines per page to n.
The value of n
must be greater
than 10;
the initial setting is 58.
The value of n includes the top margin of 5 lines;
the
page number and title appear on the second line. The
second argument, m, is optional.
If present,
it sets
the paper width in columns (initially 60).
It must be
greater than the left margin, and the right margin is
set to this value as if a RIGHT MARGIN command had also
been typed.
This command is normally used only at the
beginning of a file,
but may be used throughout if
needed.

LEFT MARGIN
.LEFT MARGIN n or .LM n
Causes a break after which the left margin is set at
column n.
The initial setting of n is O.
This may be
changed to any number less than the right margin, but
not less than O.
The amount of any indent plus the
left margin must never be less than O.

RIGHT MARGIN
.RIGHT MARGIN n or .RM n
Causes a break after which the right margin is set at
column n.
The number n must be greater than the left
margin.
The initial setting is 60.
The number of characters on a line is equal to or less
than the right margin minus the left margin minus any
indenting which may be specified.
Even if filling has
been disabled, lines are not extended past the right
margin.

SPACING
.SPACING n or .SP n
Causes a break after which the line spacing is set to
n.
(I means single spacing, 2 means double spacing,
etc.) Single spacing (n=l) is the initial setting. The
value of n must be within the range I to 5.

TAB STOPS
.TAB STOPS n ..• n or .TS n ... n
This command clears all previous tab stops and sets new
ones in the columns specified. The maximum number of
tab stops is 32. The value{s) of n must be greater
than zero and in increasing order. These values of n
are the positions of tab stops independent of the
setting of the left margin, although any that are less
than the left margin are ignored. The initial setting
of tab stops is the standard hardware setting at
eight-column intervals.
Tabs should be used only in lines that are not
justified or filled, i.e., where filling is disabled or
a break immediately follows.
Clearly, the spaces
specified by a tab character should not be expanded to
justify the line;
this defeats the effect of tab
formatting. The appearance of a tab in the source text
is translated to one or more quoted spaces, the amount
necessary to advance to the next tab stop. If a tab
appears at a point on the line where no further tab
stops have been set, the tab is treated as though it
had been a quoted space.

FLAGS
.FLAGS name c or .FL name c
Enables the special character(s)
named by name
redefines it as the character c, if c is present.
names of the special characters are:
CONTROL
ENDFOOTNOTE
UPPERCASE
LOWERCASE
UNDERLINE
SPACE
QUOTE
CAPITALIZE
INDEX
OVERSTRIKE
ALL
null

and
The

column I command indicator (.)
column I end of footnote (1)
upper case and case lock (A)
lower case and case unlock (\)
under lin ing (&)
quoted space (#)
quoting character (_)
capitalize following word «)
following word into index (»
superimpose the following character on
the preceding character (%1
all but . and 1 (col umn I control
characters)
same as ALL

NO FLAGS
.NO FLAGS name or .NFL name
Disables the special character(s)
name.
Initially,
CAPITALIZE, INDEX and OVERSTRIKE are disabled.

5.0

ERROR PROCESSING

RUNOFF denotes errors in the source file by printing messages at the
terminal.
If an incorrect or unrecognized command appears in the
source text, the message gives the page number
in which the error
exists followed by the text "Unrecognized Command" or
"Invalid
Command" and a description of the error.
When an otherwise valid
command contains an incorrect argument, RUNOFF optionally precedes the
error message with text describing the error condition.
Table 5-1
lists and explains the error conditions.
Table 5-1
RUNOFF Error Conditions
Error Text

Meaning

Can't Justify Line

No blank spaces to be expanded.

Invalid Inside Footnote

A FOOTNOTE
command
is
not
allowed
within
the text of
another FOOTNOTE command.

Missing or Invalid Argument

The command requires an argument
and does not have one or the
argument given is improper.
See
Table
4-1 for a summary of
commands and arguments.

Negative Indent Attempted

A negetive argument in an INDENT
command
may
force
the
text
beyond col umn 0
(and off the
page
image) .
Use
the LEFT
MARGIN command
to shift
the
lefthand margin further to the
right so that
the
negative
indent does not overflow column

'PRINT INDEX' Unavailable

The PRINT INDEX command requires
the BASIC-PLUS Sort package and
the Sort programs are not in the
system library.

Too Many Tab Stops

The TAB STOPS command allows no
more than 32 arguments.
User
must reformat the text.

INDEX
Abbreviations of commands, 10, 11
ALTMODE key, 2
Ampersand, 3, 7
Arguments, 9
Automatic TEST PAGE, 13
AUTOPARAGRAPH command, 20

Backs1ash (\, shift-L), 6
B (BACKSPACE), 3
BLANK command, 12
Blank lines, 12
BREAK command, 12
Breaking a line, 5

Capitalizing, 7
Case control, 18
Case control characters, 6
Case information, 6
Case lock, 18
CENTER command, 15
Character conversion, 2
Circumflex, 6
Colon, 19
Command format, RUNOFF,S
Commands, abbreviations of, 10, 11
Commands,
AUTOPARAGRAPH, 20
BLANK, 12
BREAK, 12
CENTER, 15
COMMENT, 15
DATE, 16
FIGURE, 12
FILL, 19
FIRST TITLE, 17
FLAGS, 23
FOOTNOTE, 14
HEADER, 17
INDENT, 15
INDEX, 14
JUSTIFY, 19
LEFT MARGIN, 21
LOWER CASE, 18
mode setting, 18
multiple, 5
NO AUTOPARAGRAPH, 20
NO DATE, 17
NO FILL, 20
NO FLAGS, 23
NO HEADER, 17
NO JUSTIFY, 19
NO NUMBER, 16
NO PERIOD, 19
NUMBER, 16
PAGE, 13

Commands (cant),
page formatting, 16
PAGE SIZE, 21
PARAGRAPH, 13
parameter setting, 21
PERIOD, 19
PRINT INDEX, 15
RIGHT MARGIN, 21
RUN (system), 2
SKIP, 12
SPACING, 22
SUBTITLE, 16
TAB STOPS, 22
TEST PAGE, 13
text formatting, 12
TITLE, 16
UPPER CASE, 18
COMMENT command, 15
Comments,S
Conditional page advance, 13
Conversion, character, 2
Conversion file, 2
/CONVERT switch, 2, 3

DATE command, 16
Default condition, 9
Default extension, 2
Default input device, 2
Default output device, 2
DOC extension, 2

Enabling, page header, 17
special characters, 23
Error processing, 24
ESCAPE key, 2
Exclamation point,S, 14, 19
Extension,
default, 2
DOC, 2
RNO,

FIGURE command, 12
File, conversion, 2
File, source, 5
FILL command, 19
Filling a line,S, 9
FIRST TITLE command, 17
FLAGS command, 23
FOOTNOTE command, 14
Formatting the text, 5
Form feeds, 3

INDEX-1

Greater than (», 8

HEADER command, 17

INDENT command, 15
Indenting, 13
INDEX command, 14
Index entry, 8
Input device, default, 2

Page advance, conditional, 13
Page advance, unconditional, 13
PAGE command, 13
Page formatting commands, 16
Page header enabling, 17
Page numbering, 16
PAGE SIZE command, 21
Paper width, 21
PARAGRAPH command, 13
Parameter setting commands, 21
Pause question, 4
Percent, 8
Period character,S, 9, 19
PERIOD command, 19
PRINT INDEX command, 15

JUSTIFY command, 19
Justifying a line,S, 9

Key word, 14

LEFT MARGIN command, 21
Less-than «), 7
Lines per page, 21
Line spacing, 22
L (LINE), 3
LOWER CASE command, 18

Question mark, 19
/QUE switch, 2
Quoted space, 7
Quoted space, tab, treated as, 22

RIGHT MARGIN command, 21
RNO extension, 2
RUNOFF command format, 5
RUNOFF commands, summary of, 10,
11

RUNOFF defaults, summary of, 10,
11

Margin control, 21
Mode setting commands, 18
Multiple commands, 5

N (NO) , 3
NO AUTOPARAGRAPH command, 20
NO DATE command, 17
NO FILL command, 20
NO FLAGS command, 23
NO JUSTIFY command, 19
NO HEADER command, 17
NO NUMBER command, 16
NO PERIOD command, 19
NUMBER command, 16
Number sign, 7

Optional switch, 2
Output device, default, 2
Output file designation, 2
Outputting special characters, 8
Overstriking, 8

RUNOFF
RUNOFF
RUNOFF
RUNOFF

error conditions, 24
operation, 1
running, 2
terminating, 4

Semicolons,S, 9, 19
S (FOLLOWING), 3
Short forms of commands, 10, 11
Simulate form feed question, 3
SKIP command, 12
SORT package, 15
Source file, 5
Source file designation, 2
Space, 9, 20
Space, quoted, 7
/SPACES switch, 3
SPACING command, 22
Spacing, vertical, 13
Special character disabling, 23
Special character enabling, 23
Special characters, 7
Special characters, list of, 23
Special characters, outputting, 8
SUBTITLE command, 16
Summary of RUNOFF commands, 10, 11

INDEX-2

Summary of RUNOFF defaults, 10, 11
Superimposing, 8
Switch,
/CONVERT, 2, 3
optional, 2
/QUE, 2
/SPACES, 3

Tab, 9
TAB STOPS command, 22
Tab, treated as quoted space, 22
Terminating a footnote, 14
TEST PAGE command, 13
Text formatting commands, 12
Text, formatting the, 5
TITLE command, 16

Unconditional page advance, 13
Underlining, 3, 7, 8
Underlining blanks, 7
Underlining spaces, 3
Underscore question, 3
Underscoring, 3, 7
Underscoring,
by line printer, 3
by backspacing, 3
by minus sign on following line,
3
disabling, 3
UPPER CASE command, 18

Vertical spacing, 13

Width, paper, 21

INDEX-3

RSTS/E RUNOFF
USER'S GUIDE
DEC-ll-URUNA-B-D

AA-3337B-TC
READER'S COMMENTS

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use comments submitted on this form at the company's
discretion. Problems with software should be reported
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If you
require a written reply and are eligible to receive
one under SPR service, submit your comments on an SPR
form.

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