FILT VERSION 1.0 ---------------- Copyright (c) 1988, 1989 by Borland International, Inc. TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- 1. What is FILT? 2. Summary of Options 3. Descriptions of Options 1. WHAT IS FILT? ---------------- FILT is a text-filter program that performs some low-level formatting and translation functions. As a filter, FILT does its input and output through the console device (CON). Input and output files must be specified with the DOS redirection commands. Here's the basic syntax: FILT options < input_file > output_file The options consist of single letters and are described below. The input_file and output_file, in conjunction with the redirection characters, < and >, tell DOS what files to use for input and output. If no input file is specified, the keyboard will be used. If no output file is specified, the screen will be used. The options are single, case-sensitive letters. Any number of options may be specified, and some of the options are followed by a number. All numbers are decimal and come immediately after the option letter (with no intervening spaces); numbers over 65,535 will cause an error. 2. SUMMARY OF OPTIONS --------------------- Note: # denotes number Tab Replacement --------------- x = expands tabs to spaces c = compresses spaces to tabs Tab Assignment -------------- e = erases all tab stops t# = sets tab stop Character Replacement --------------------- S = strips high bits C = strips control chars H = strips high (>127) bytes U = all letters to uppercase L = all letters to lowercase A = capitalize words Line Format ----------- m = adds left margin d = deletes left margin l# = truncates long lines r = removes trailing spaces b# = byte to end input lines s = saves carriage returns End of File ----------- z = ignores ^Z in input Z = suppresses ^Z in output I/O Buffer ---------- i# = input buffer size (20000) o# = output buffer size (20000) 3. DESCRIPTIONS OF OPTIONS -------------------------- The following fully describes all options in alphabetical order (lowercase first): ? Help. Displays a summary of the options. b# Byte to end input lines. Defines the character that will identify an end of line (EOL). For instance, b13 will cause a line to be ended when a carriage return is reached. The default is b10. This option does not effect how EOL's will be written; they are always ended with a CR+LF combination. c Compresses spaces to tabs. When possible, spaces will be replaced by tab characters (ASCII 9). The default tab stops are every eight columns, but can be set manually with the e and t options. d# Deletes left margin. The specified number of characters will be deleted from the left side of all the lines. Any characters will be deleted. Note that tabs only count as one character. e Erases all tab stops. All tab stops will be erased. User-defined tab stops (set with the t option) should come after the e option. h Help. Displays a summary of the options. i# Input buffer size. Sets the size of the input buffer. The default is i20000. Making it larger might improve the processing rate for a slow input device, while making it smaller will use less memory. l# Truncate long lines. Lines longer than the specified length will be truncated. Normally any length lines (up to about 600 characters) are acceptable. m# Add left margin. The specified number of spaces will be added to the left margin. o# Output buffer size. Set the size of the output buffer. The default is o20000. Making it larger might improve the processing rate for a slow output device, while making it smaller will use less memory. s Saves carriage returns. All carriage returns (ASCII 13) are normally deleted from the input. This option might be useful in a file that contains line boundaries without carriage returns, but does contain carriage returns as some kind of special formatting code. r Removes trailing spaces. Any spaces (or tabs when using the c option) that come at the end of lines will be removed. Spaces at the end of lines, though superfluous, are often left over from word processors. t# Sets a tab stop. A tab stop will be set at the specified column number. The leftmost column is column one. Any number of tab stops can be specified. The default tab stops are every eight columns, i.e., t9 t17 t25 etc. x Expands tabs to spaces. All tab characters (ASCII 9) will be replaced with an equivalent number of spaces. The default tab stops are every eight columns, but can be set manually with the e and t options. z Ignores ^Z in the input file. A ^Z (ASCII 26) normally identifies the end of a file. If this option is used, the full number of bytes recorded in the directory will be read. A Capitalize words. Letters that follow another letter will be converted to lowercase, all other letters will be converted to uppercase. C Strips control characters. All characters below ASCII 32 will be removed. The exceptions are the CR, LF, and Ctrl-Z characters. H Strips high bytes. All characters above ASCII 127 will be removed. L Converts all letters to lowercase. S Strips high bits. The high bit of all bytes above ASCII 127 will be cleared. U Converts all letters to uppercase. Z Suppresses ^Z in the output file. Normally a ^Z (ASCII 26) is written to the end of the file. If this option is used, a ^Z will not be written. The following are some examples of FILT option and file specifications: filt ? Displays a summary of all options to the screen. filt cr < data.fil > data.new Means: c = compress spaces to tab characters; r = remove trailing spaces. The input file is DATA.FIL and the output file is DATA.NEW. This combination of options may greatly reduce the size of a file by compressing or removing unnecessary spaces. filt zZCHi500o500 < a:text.xxx > c:\doc\text.txt Means: z = ignore any input ^Zs; Z = do not write a ^Z to the end of the file; C = remove all control characters; H = remove any characters with a value greater than 127; i500 = set the input buffer size to 500 bytes; o500 = set the output buffer size to 500 bytes. The input file is A:TEXT.XXX and the output file is C:\DOC\TEXT.TXT. This combination of options converts the input file into a pure ASCII file with no control characters (except for the line boundaries). Note that about 39,000 fewer bytes of memory are used during execution because of the buffer sizes, 500+500=1000 instead of the default 20000+20000=40000.
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