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12-Oct-85 17:47:22-MDT,00000003019;000000000001
Date: 12 Oct 1985 1747-MDT
From: Beebe (Nelson H.F. Beebe)
Subject: [Beebe (Nelson H.F. Beebe): WordStar to LaTeX translation]
To: op.hendry, fh.harris
cc: BEEBE
2
---------------
Date: 11 Oct 1985 1804-MDT
From: Beebe (Nelson H.F. Beebe)
Subject: WordStar to LaTeX translation
To: C-GRISS, CH.JM.DOWNING, FH.HARRIS, MA.PETERSEN, OP.BOWMAN, OP.DUNCAN,
To: OP.HENDRY, OP.LICHTY, OP.WILLETT, VI.FULLERTON, GU.KILLIAN
cc: BEEBE, MA.HOPPENSTEADT, CH.JM.KLING, BI.PARKINSON, bi.kofOID, CH.MAYNE,
cc: vi.leaver, ma.othmer
I completed today a pair of programs for assisting in the
conversion of files from WordStar (a popular microcomputer
word processor) to LaTeX. The subject manuscript was Pete
Conwell's Ph.D. thesis, which Ed Leaver is going to massage
further into a form that LaTeX will accept.
WordStar file format makes extensive use of the high-order
bit of 8-bit ASCII characters to flag "hard" and "soft" line
breaks, underlining, subscripting, superscripting,
boldfacing, etc. The exact sequences to do this are
described in a document which the authors of WordStar market
for $500; needless to say, I did not buy it, but just
reverse engineered the job.
The WordStar file was KERMITed to the DEC-20 from an IBM PC
by issuing SET FILE 8-BIT then SERVER to KERMIT-20, followed
by a normal KERMIT-PC SEND command.
Both programs are in the directory APS:<BEEBE.UTILITY>.
The first of them, WS87.PAS, can be used to copy any 8-bit
file to a 7-bit file, turning all characters in the range
128 .. 255 into printable \nnn octal escape sequences. This
allows examination of the WordStar file on the DEC-20, and
could be used for other 8-bit files as well.
The second, WSLTEX, is a 535-line workhorse which identifies
all the WordStar magic sequences used in Pete's thesis and
turns them into appropriate LaTeX commands. It would be
straightforward to modify WSLTEX now for any other document
formatter, and if necessary, to recognize other WordStar
sequences not used in the thesis.
Conversion time was 19 sec on the DEC-20 for 6000 lines of
WordStar input.
WordStar is not a well-designed formatter, in that it does
not consistently identify document features. In particular,
double spacing actually appears verbatim (and is converted
to single spacing by WSLTEX, except at paragraph
boundaries), and centered text (as in chapter titles) is
just centered without any identification. Consequently, an
editing session is still necessary to take the output of
WSLTEX and convert it into true LaTeX input. The important
thing is that every special feature in the input WordStar
document is preserved, something which is not possible if
the 8-th bit is just lopped off.
Help yourselves. Extensions, modifications, and bug reports
are welcome. It's all public domain, so don't sell it!
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