Automatic intertext column spacing
Contents
1. 32012 06 LINN 21901 DILINHLIVY 433151934 H21VH2S 31 98 1 2 2 2 5 98 231901 JOYNLNOD OYLNOS t8 43451934 831NIOd 2715 801 53151939 831NIOd viva 90 98 7OHLNOO 42013 aLNNOD WVH9OMHd 28 2015 06 98 10H1NO2 2070 06 06 x mo 32010 TvNH31X3 98 06 7COH1NOD 32012 Sheet 3 of 6 4 484 826 Nov 27 1984 U S Patent MOPULM qipny 913 penanb sabessaw butuse jj abessaw aur abessay Sd 03 dajs aul zdwoug bz 92e daJ 14asut apow oweu Bulssad0ud A14206434ul 1x31 s nu W 340dM81A a3e3s uot2euJoju l uot33unj saut 500 uot3diaosep ysel a338xsig 3 10 2 LOA GI LOA l 1no4e1 099235 4 484 826 Sheet 4 of 6 U S Patent Nov 27 1984 v 914 comede sulbsow abod x x YIPIM UIPLM YIPLM x YIPIM y YIPIM x SUWN 09 gt 4 lt 4973NB gt 4 lt UWN 02 4 48333n5 uun 02 lt gt x x x 2 L U3p LM U3ptM y x 1 ug ueu x 02 4 uun 02 Uun 02 x2. The actual space character insertion is governed by the while do loop on lines 39 44 The insertion will be for the width of one gutter This is represented by the distance in a for loop index i from the end of buffer down to the cursor position moving from right to left The actual assignment is made on line 42 in which buf fer cursor In the PASCAL implementation this is accomplished by moving the rightmost column widths which amounts to counter positions to the right and filling in the hole with space characters When the sec ond while do loop completes this task the variable guttercount is decremented by 1 on line 44 Unless the guttercount is the loop is repeated with the cursor on line 31 being incremented and the cycle repeated for the scanning of the next gutter to delete the spaces and then the insertion of the appropriate even number When the guttercount is equal to 9 the cursor is repositioned to the start of the column example line and the procedure transfer control back to the interactive word processor and interface The PASCAL source code implementation was se lected to express aspects of the invention in view of its compactness and currency among persons having ordi nary skill in this art Other method implementations can be formulated in assembly level language as for exam ple set out in Osborne 8080 Programming for Logic Design Sybex Berkeley Calif 1976 While the invention is pa
3. XX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXXXXX XX XXXX XXX XX XXXXXXXXXX XX XXXX XX XXXXXX XXXXXXX XX XXXX XXX XXXXX XXXXXXXXXX XX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXXX XX XXXX XXXX XYXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX lt eee gan 9 9 w ea 0 9 9 9 9 9 9 lt gt gt x x x 2 a Z x L x A A urbuew 3u514 tqe3 aL lqeq a cd ey U S Patent Nov 27 1984 Sheet 5 of 6 4 484 826 4 2 etos eee teeselaseetesesDesselese eee ies Tesi sas Sua t aaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaeaa aaaaaaaea DoeeectoeeesDessstescehewsetewccDBeceetecsalucecteccelecsetecvseseetvescb aaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaacaa aaaaaaa a graphics total col widths 1m left margin rm right margin rte right table edge cel col example line scan cel cols r remainder no of gutters graphics xtra spaces gutterwidth rte 1m graphics gutters q r gutters CM RCM OE distribute scan gutter md delete spaces P g insert q spaces insert 9 1 spaces ri r gutters 1 U S Patent 27 1984 Sheet 6 of 6 4 484 826 procedure autoinsert cursor eob start rm Im integer buffer packed array l m of char const rcr ord z var linewidth guttercount totcolwidth spacing xtra 1 coun
4. memory for storing formatted infor mation and an intercoupling microprocessor compris ing the steps of operator entering of a line of at least two column width examples of repeated text and control char acters and responsive to function key actuation the machine step of modifying the example line by the auto matic insertion of space characters into the gutters between column examples approximating the unoc cupied escapement between the page margins di vided by the number of gutters said machine step further including the steps of ad seriatim scanning each gutter and removing space characters encoun tered therein initializing a counter index to the number of spaces to be inserted and inserting the space characters and decrementing the index for each insertion until the index is exhausted 2 A method for inserting an approximately even number of space characters between formatted text column widths of a multicolumn table in an example line of repeated text and control characters operator keyed during the column layout mode of an electronic page in an interactive word processing system and responsive to the stroking of a predetermined key the machine steps of scanning the example line and counting the number of columns gutters and text characters moving the right table edge to coincide with the right page margin if the example line is less than the horizontal character escapement between the left and right margins
5. of a predetermined function key 3 Claims 6 Drawing Figures lt 2 3 0 5 6 8 gt 4 _ MATENI TETE Se ny Pee ea e 6 1 7 8 gt aaaaaaaeaa asaaasava graphics total co widths ae Im left margin START m right margin rte right table edge MF e scan c col example line e gutt reminder no of xtra spaces cel el ccls graphics ers s yutterwidth graphics rte lu gutters r qutters qp e qutters distribute intercol spaciny insert q spaces Insert atl spaces rv Sheet 1 of 6 4 484 826 Nov 27 1984 U S Patent bg 3113 xS Q ec oz VULNOD 1VWHOJ J 1iN3wnooa 1957 Sn8 NOILONn4 O3NINHJ31303Hd 505532059 9 SANILNOYW SDIAY3S NOILONNS bl JO81NOO 25559305 V dOlnA1H3MO QHV08A33 el S43 Sheet 2 of 6 4 484 826 Nov 27 1984 U S Patent sna viva A1fidifO s 98 10H81NO2 o I WV H90Nd 32012 06 32015 sng AXMOW 8l 26 SNLVLS 98 5912 WHLNOD 06 98 70X 1NOO 88 2012
6. or a new column In turn the revised column example line may be encoded and saved There is also provided an auto matic one character wide gutter insertion when creating a new column to prevent the operator from failing to include a gutter after formatting his adjacent column The Invention It is an object of the inventive method for evenly adjusting the gutters between columns during the for matting of multiple text columns on a page in an interac tive word processing system formed from a keyboard display memory for storing formatted information and an intercoupling microprocessor The method steps include operator keyboard entry of a line of at least two column width examples formed from repeated text and control characters and responsive to function key actu ation the machine step of modifying the example line by the automatic insertion of spaced characters in the gutters between the column examples proportional to the unoccupied escapement between the page margins divided by the number of gutters In addition to auto matically producing even spacing between each column within the vertical page margins there is also executed the additional step of adjusting the tab stops within each column accordingly Advantageously this method is in harmony with other column layout functions by example Generi cally an operator teaches the word processor to format text data for use in a multiple text column table by way of dummy illustr
7. widths and gutters and then must count and enter the tab stops along the scale line Word processing is to be distinguished from text processing in both the kind and degree of facilities avail able to the operator Text processing involves the use of a large capacity CPU shared among multiple terminals empowered with a text processor such as SCRIPTS VS having rapid access to megabytes of fast DASD storage In text systems threaded data lists exe cuted in SCRIPTS permits flexible operator formatting taking advantage of the sophisticated processing opera tions on list pointers and indices To the contrary word processing is focused on stand alone terminals in which letters small documents and memos are processed by microcomputers interacting with limited diskette stor age of 200 or 300 kilobyte capacity The documents and pages are processed as end marked semi infinite simply structured character strings with few embedded con trols The comparative absence of highly elaborated data structures saves memory but requires special for matting considerations such as documents composing for tables and the like In the IBM Program Product Document Composi tion Facility User s Guide Second Edition April 1980 IBM publication No SH20 9161 1 at Chapter 5 pp 67 69 there is described multicolumn page layout for the SCRIPT VS text processing system SCRIPT defines a multiple column layout requiring operator specification of column numbe
8. MATIC INTERTEXT COLUMN SPACING FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to word processing and more particularly to a machine assisted interactive method and means for evenly adjusting the gutters between columns during formatting of multiple text columns on a page in a word processing system BACKGROUND ART Pascoe U S Pat No 4 207 011 issued June 10 1980 describes the formatting of sequentially stored text col umns by embedding semaphore codes Upon the side by side printout of the stored text columns the embed ded codes preserve a synchronous relationship between their varying line spacings That is a code character in line i initiates a memory scan to ascertain the existence of any counterpart line i to be printed from column 2 Greek et al U S Pat No 3 952 852 issued Apr 27 1976 discloses a system having a keyboard and printer a buffer and control and a multicolumn playout control unit During set up a tab field for defining the printing locations of the column can be set up by operator key The columns which are stored sequentially are printed out in a side by side manner the beginning of each column being defined by the keying of a column begin code In contrast word processing systems where text stream input is stored and displayed tables of multiple columns of text or data are formatted by an operator involving a displayable scale line on the system The operator independently ascertains column
9. United Horn et al States Patent 115 54 AUTOMATIC INTERTEXT COLUMN SPACING 75 73 21 22 51 52 Filed U S 58 Inventors Assignee Appl No Int Cl Field of Search Gary R Horn Kenneth O Shipp Jr both of Austin Tex International Business Machines Corporation Armonk N Y 305 255 Sep 24 1981 B41J 25 18 E E 400 279 400 3 400 76 400 83 364 900 340 720 400 2 3 63 64 67 400 68 76 83 279 705 4 705 5 364 200 900 56 340 720 721 723 724 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 3 952 852 4 207 011 4 1976 Greek et al 6 1980 Pascoe 11 Patent Number 4 484 826 4 Date of Patent Nov 27 1984 4 223 393 9 1980 Abe et al 364 900 OTHER PUBLICATIONS IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin Column Equaliza tion Howell et al vol 25 No 1 Jun 1982 pp 388 390 IBM Program Product Documentation Composition Facility User s Guide Second ed Apr 1980 No SH20 9161 1 Ch 5 pp 67 69 Primary Examiner Ernest T Wright Jr Attorney Agent or Firm R Bruce Brodie 57 ABSTRACT In a column layout operation in an interactive word processing system the unoccupied character escape ment along a column example line is automatically evenly distributed by the insertion of an appropriate number of space characters responsive to the stroking
10. acing forms equal width gutters During each repeat cycle the cursor on line 31 is incremented until the first gutter is found Further the repeat cycle consists of two while do loops which respectively delete or insert a space character under the appropriate conditions Illustratively the first while do loop scans the gutter and deletes spaces This is PASCAL implemented by a functional equivalent of moving the characters to the right of the instantaneous cursor position to the end of the buffer over to the left thereby eliminating spaces between column margins This is expressed in lines 33 36 by way of a for loop indexed from cursor 1 to the integer value represent ing the buffer end eob Since the column widths are preserved there is no information lost by deleting the space characters The remaining steps are to reinsert an even number of space characters to define the gutters between adjacent columns To this end a new variable counter is assigned the value of spacing on line 37 In order to ensure that the number of remainder spaces represented by xtra are evenly distributed one addi tional space is added in each gutter formation cycle Parenthetically the number of such cycles is controlled by the variable guttercount Thus to ensure an extra space insertion the conditional statement on line 38 causes the variable counter to be incremented by 1 with the variable xtra decremented by 1
11. and moving the edge otherwise to the line end computing the gutter width as the integer quotient of the unoccupied escapement between the margins divided by the number of gutters and the integer remainder of the unoccupied escapement modulo number of gutters and forming each gutter by inserting the quotient number of space characters between consecutive overlap ping pairs of columns said gutter formation being repeated until the number of gutters is exhausted 3 A method according to claim 2 wherein the num ber of space characters is equal to the quotient plus 1 whereby the remainder is evenly distributed
12. ation supplemented by auto matic assistance BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG 1 depicts a word processor system configura tion including soft and hard copy output facilities inter nal and external memory a keyboard a microprocessor and intercoupling bus FIG 2 delineates a partial register organization of the microprocessor shown in FIG 1 FIG 3 is a display screen soft copy layout organiza tion of information as viewed by a word processor operator FIG 4 shows table and column layout spatial defini tions FIG 5 depicts the method flow diagram of the inven tion 4 484 826 3 FIG 6 PASCAL source code implementation of the machine response to the operative function key stroke of the method DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT AND INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY Brief System Machine Description Referring now to FIG 1 there is shown a word processing system 10 which includes a keyboard 12 for receiving text character entries and transmitting the text through a path 14 to a microprocessor 16 A memory bus 18 couples processor 16 to a CRT display 20 dis kette drive 22 a printer 24 and a random access mem ory 26 Keyboard 12 preferably should exhibit a set of actuable key faces of any standard alphanumeric char acter set together with function keys The function keys are in effect mode switches That is a function key upon operator actuation operates as an event driver It inter rupts micropr
13. ble format so as to permit im plementing column functions such as delete move copy and revise These attributes include the widths of each column the tab stop within each column and the spacing gutters between columns In the copending Horn and Shipp patent application Ser No 305 260 filed Sept 24 1981 there is described a method for formatting multiple columns either when creating a new table or for revising existing tables by way of modi fying selected column widths or inserting a new column therein The method involves initializing the system by 5 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 selectively suppressing text edit controls and reserving resources such as an allocation of memory The table formatting is executed by way of operator keying of repeated text characters and controls as an example The example line is then encoded and saved 1f the table is to be newly created then the operator keys in a new format under a displayed scale line designated the column example line by the repetitive keying of text and control characters The tab rack constitutes column and gutter width information Said tab rack is encoded as control bytes associated with the BEGIN TABLE BT control character This information is saved Thus if the table is to be revised then the column example line is displayed and reconstituted according to the previously saved encoded information At that time the opera
14. canning across the column example line spacing is the integer guotient of the linewidth divided by the guttercount xtra is the remainder expressed as the linewidth modulo guttercount Lastly i is an indexing variable used for character insertion The value of the Boolean variable gutter found is an indicator which invokes the determination of gutterwidth or totcolwidth The programmatic 20 25 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 parallel to the method is set out between lines 8 and 47 In this regard line 9 deals with initialization of all of the counter registers while a line 10 moves the cursor to the start of the column example line Schematically the program consists of a first while do loop between lines 11 and 24 which scans the en tered character example line to determine the line width the total column width and the number of gut ters Lines 25 through 47 include the determination of the intercolumn spacing at line 27 28 and the distribu tion of that spacing by a repeat until loop bounded by lines 30 45 In order to ensure that the automatic inter column spacing is invoked only in the presence of two or more columns a conditional statement if then is inserted on line 25 with an ending on line 46 The next paragraphs will describe a functional analysis of the procedure string Referring again to FIG 6 line 9 constitutes the ini tialization o
15. f the significant registers In this regard the Boolean variable gutterfound is set to false and the running character width count represented by line width and totcolwidth are set to as is the gutter count Initialization is completed in line 10 by moving the cursor to the start of the column example line The ascertainment of the line width the total column width and the number of gutters is a function as previ ously mentioned contained within the while do loop between lines 11 and 24 This outer loop consists of a pair of subordinate while do loops and a conditional statement The first inner while do loop between lines 13 and 16 measures the width of a gutter As long as each successive character in a text string is a space character then the line width counter is incremented and the cursor is moved to the next character The conditional statement represented by lines 17 through 19 resets the gutterfound Boolean variable to false and increments the gutter counter by 1 The second inter nal while do loop depicted in lines 20 23 is invoked if the buffer cursor character is not a space nor the end of line Consequently for each character satisfying either one of those conditions the running variables totcol width and linewidth are incremented as is the cursor When a space character or an end of line is encountered the while do loop is not executed The transfer of con
16. g of a char acter string rm and Im respectively designating the vertical table right and left margins The character string is represented by the variable buffer All of the input parameters are of the integer type In PASCAL a character string must be represented as a packed array of type characters In this procedure the required car riage return rcr is depicted as a constant having the ordinal value of z in the ASCII character code The variables local to the procedure are all of the integer type but one gutterfound which is of type Boolean For data typing details reference should be made to the above named language texts Because the variables are dynamically generated when the program set out in FIG 6 is executed those variables such as linewidth and guttercount which are operative as counters are operative as logical count ers rather than physical units Such is a matter of design choice Such logical counters will not have a physical existence except as a RAM memory location assigned according to the memory map discipline governing RAM 26 and the PASCAL compiling of the source code set out in FIG 6 Of the integer local variables linewidth is a running count of the number of characters being scanned in the column example line The guttercount represents the number of gutters actually encountered The totcol width is a running variable of the number of characters encountered in s
17. ided to each of the major elements As can be seen in FIG 2 a conventional microprocessor architecture is 4 484 826 5 set out for example a program counter 104 when incre mented by the clock signals on path 90 specifies location either in a register or in a memory for the next instruc tion to be executed Data pointer register 106 and stack pointer register 108 respectively contain pointers to the address location for recently entered characters and the location in the memory of the instruction stack i e to a last in first out stack used for procedure and func tion calls the storage of static variables and temporary values during expression evaluation Element 110 is a status register with reference either to availability or content error Prompting Word Processor Display In a prompting word processor display device 20 is of the CRT type and is capable of setting out monos paced characters In this regard reference should be made to FIG 3 A typical display is partitioned such that lines 1 or 2 are status lines reflecting the informa tion state of the display Next lines 3 through 23 define a viewpoint in which are set out menus text and infor mation necessary for interactive processing Line 24 is a prompt line which provides information stepping the operator to the next menu function or activity Lastly line 25 is a message line which indicates whether mes sages are flashing or queued A typical screen layou
18. ilable in the active format storage section 30 As each character is entered through the keyboard 12 it is processed by one or more of the keystroke service routines stored in memory location or block 50 as executed by processor 16 Also the text stream stored in text storage buffer 28 is simultaneously entered into display refresh buffer 76 This buffer 76 drives display 20 The diplay control block 70 and display access method block 68 provide a window which may be scrolled relative to the contents of the TSB 28 It should be noted that both the diskette drive 22 and printer 24 have dedicated buffer block areas assigned thereto Lastly block 70 serves to store flags and status information as required by the operation of block 68 lext storage buffer control block 34 serves as the data area for the text storage buffer 28 A cursor control buffer section 36 is included within the text storage control block 34 Block 34 ts linked through a channel 38 to the active format storage section 30 and through a channel 40 to the text storage buffer 28 The cursor 5 25 30 40 45 50 60 65 4 control section 36 is connected through a channel 42 to text storage buffer 28 A text storage buffer manager block 44 is coupled through a channel 46 to the text storage buffer 28 Block 44 is further coupled through a channel 48 to the TSB control block 34 As each character is entered through keyboard 12 it is received at the
19. memory 26 by the actions of one or more keystroke service routines in memory location or block 50 A keystroke control unit block 52 is a data area which determines the selected keystroke routine for processing the received character Block 52 is linked to the keystroke service routine in memory location or block 50 through channel 54 The keystroke service routine block 50 is further linked through a channel 56 to the text storage buffer control block 34 and through channels 58 and 60 to TSB manager block 44 The active format storage section 30 is connected through channel 62 to the keystroke service routine block 50 The diskette buffer 32 is connected through channel 64 to the keystroke service routine block 50 The text characters and control information in TSB 28 are communicated through channel 66 to a display access method block 68 This serves as an interface for the display 20 Corresponding access method blocks for the keyboard 12 diskette drive 22 and printer 24 are substituted when communications with these units is required Display control block 70 is connected through path 72 to the access method block 68 Partial Machine Register Organization Data and Control Flow Referring now to FIG 2 there is illustrated the con temporary machine register organization of processor 16 Such a processor 16 may be commercially imple mented as for example by an Intel Corporation micro processor model 8086 According to FIG 2 the p
20. ocessor 16 which then task switches the processor 16 This suspends execution of the current task and transfers control to the starting address of the instruction string resident in memory 26 of the program bound or associated with the function key Such task switching involves saving the contents of principal registers and transferring to a program counter the starting address of the first location in memory 26 of the program The program counter causes the contents to be read out from RAM 26 and transferred to a program decoder or functional equivalent thereof for execution Since the binding of specific programs to function keys and task switching upon function key actuation is well known to the art further description thereof shall not be made An operator enters a text stream through the key board 12 Each page of text is stored and processed in memory 26 As the text stream is received in the mem ory 26 it is simultaneously presented to display 20 After the buffering of the text in text storage buffer 28 of memory 26 the stream can be saved on diskette drive 22 or hard copy printed out on printer 24 Memory 26 includes a number of data areas and func tional programs for operating with the text stored in system 10 The text and related control function are saved in a text storage buffer 28 which includes an active format storage section 30 and a diskette buffer 32 The keyboard character set KB CS for the document ing process is ava
21. phic characters In this regard the left and right table mar gins are known After the scan the next step is to find the right table edge and assign it to the right margin Thus if the total column widths are greater than the space between the right margin and left margin then the right table edge is placed upon the end of the col umn example line escapement If the total column widths fit within the right and left hand margins then the right table edge is assigned to the right margin Next the even gutter width is determined as a function of the unoccupied space between the margins and the number of gutters This means that the distance be tween the right table edge and the left margin from which is subtracted the total column widths defines the total available unoccupied character escapement If this quantity is divided by the number of gutters then the quotient and remainder can be used to govern the actual insertion of space characters during the next step of distributing the available white space evenly Starting at the beginning of the column example line the inner column spacing is distributed to each gutter by the repetitive application of the steps of scanning the next gutter deleting all the spaces in said gutter and if 4 484 826 7 the remainder r is greater than 0 then insert the integer quotient 1 spaces and decrement the remainder r by l Otherwise insert the integer quotient of spaces After space insertion
22. r width and left margin position for each column Thus the prior art of inter column spacing is completely operator defined with limited if any automatic assistance In the co pending Horn and Shipp application U S Ser No 305 260 filed on Sept 24 1981 there is de picted a multiple text column formatting method exe cuted in an interactive word processing system having a 10 20 25 30 35 40 55 60 65 2 display screen a keyboard a memory for storing for matted information and an intercoupling microproces sor In the Horn et al type of prompting interactive word processor multiple text column tables are format ted prior to text entry by invoking a column layout function mode Consonantly menued prompts promi nently displayed guide the operator in order to struc ture the column widths and gutters intercolumn spac ing by repeated keying of text characters or widths and then inserting space characters over to the next column position and repeatedly keying in text characters to define the widths of yet another column This single entry line permits the column and gutter widths to be automatically aligned with tab stops The formatted column example line is then vector encoded and saved If it is subsequently desired to revise a saved table its encoded format line is recalled rebuilt and then revised by entering repeated text and control characters to define an altered width of an existing column
23. roces sor 16 includes a control logic unit 80 which responds to an interrupt on device bus 82 from keyboard 12 Logic unit 80 is also connected to a data and address bus 84 intercoupling other logic elements In response to a fetch instruction from random access memory 26 logic unit 80 generates control signals to other elements The signals are coupled by way of path 86 illustratively connecting ALU 88 Synchronous operation of unit 80 and other logic elements is ensured by way of clock pulses from an external clock source transmitted over path 90 Data and instructions to be executed by processor 16 are entered over logic unit 92 Data also may be entered by way of a programmed input output logic 94 Logic unit 92 couples storage elements of RAM 26 and receives instructions by pro cessing data from the I O control 94 or from RAM 26 Device controlled information from processor 16 is passed by I O control unit 94 and data bus 98 Input on data bus 98 from keyboard 12 is processed internally through processor 16 by instructions over bus 84 to logic unit 80 by ALU 88 ALU 88 in response to a signal on path 86 and in accordance with instructions received on bus 18 executes arithmetic operations stored in tem porary register 102 An external clock signal source simultaneously supplies clocking or strobe signals for synchronizing the diverse transmission and memory accessing elements of the machine Indeed clock signals on path 90 are pro v
24. rticularly described with reference to a preferred embodiment it is appreciated that its departure from the prior art is to produce equal size gutters between each column in contrast to printer justification which merely distributes the white space between the end of a line and the right margin to the spaces on the line Significantly the method of this invention by altering the number of spaces between the 25 30 35 40 45 50 65 10 column examples on the column example line has pre served each column while readjusting its horizontal position Since tab stop settings for the table are part of the column examples the tab stop settings have been properly adjusted to their correct locations It will be further understood by those skilled in this art that vari ous other changes in the form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention Having thus described our invention what is claimed as new and desired to secure the Letters Patent is 1 A method for forming a multiple text column table within a page the space between adjacent columns being denominated a gutter the left edge of the leftmost column and the right edge of the rightmost column being denominated a page or table margin said method evenly adjusting the gutters between columns during the formatting of the multiple text columns on the page in an interactive word processing system formed from a keyboard display
25. t of the information state or display lines 1 and 2 is shown just above the portion of FIG 3 denominated function Such a screen layout could contain the volume number or identity of the diskettes task description document name the keying mode such as insert or replace and other specialized or reserved functions Column and Gutter Definitions Referring now to FIG 4 there is shown the gutter and column width parameters specifying a set of adja cent vertical columns starting at the table left margin and extending to the right margin Column and gutter widths are defined in terms of the width of a character included within a predetermined font or in absolute escapement units such as 1 1440 inches per unit In this regard a column width is preferably a multiple byte number designating the width of a column text as the number of character units counted relative to the pre ceding gutter Likewise a gutter width is a multiple byte number designating the amount of white space in character widths associated with a vertical column The first gutter width is specified as a unit count relative to the left margin Other gutter widths specify unit counts relative to the right edge of the previous column widths Multitext Column Layout Formatting By Example The purpose of column layout functions in an interac tive prompting word processing system 10 is to provide an opportunity for an operator to specify all of the attributes of a column ta
26. ter integer gutterfound boolean begin gutterfound false linewidth guttercount 8 totcolwidth cursor start while buffer cursor rcr do begin while buffer cursor do egin mE gutterfound true linewidth linewidth l cursor cursor end whiledo buffer cursor if gutterfound then begin gutterfound false guttercount quttercountt end if while buffer cursor lt gt or buffer cursor lt gt rcr do begin totcolwidth totcolwidth 1 linewidth linewidth cursor cursor end whiledo buffer cursor lt gt end whiledo buffer cursor rcr if guttercount gt 1 then 1n f totcolwidth guttercount lt rm 1m then linewidth rm 1m end if spacing linewidth totcolwidth div guttercount xtra linewidth totcolwidth mod guttercount iT cursor start repeat cursor cursor while buffer cursar lt gt do begin for i cursor l to eob do begin buffer i 1 buffer i eob eob 1 end for end whiledo buffer cursor lt gt counter spacing if xtra gt then begin counter counter l xtra xtra 1 end if while counter f do begin for i eob downto cursor do begin buffer i 1 buffer i eob eobt buffer cursor space end for end whiledo counter guttercount guttercount until guttercount f end if gutter gt 1 cursor start end autoinsert E FIG 6 4 484 826 1 AUTO
27. the number of gutters is diminished by 1 and if greater than 0 the cycle is repeated until the number of gutters is equal to A PASCAL Source Code Implementation A PASCAL source code implementation of the ma chine response to the operative function keystroke is set out in FIG 6 PASCAL is a well known high level source code programming language suitable for use in devising control and operating system programs the object code of which upon execution in an interactive word processor suitably implements the method of invention The PASCAL language is well appreciated in the art Reference can be made to Jensen and Wirth PASCAL User Manual and Report Second Edition Springer Verlag 1974 Wirth Algorithms Plus Data Structures Equal Programs Prentice Hall Series in Automatic Computation 1976 The language has been adopted as an ISO Standard PASCAL compilers are resident in microprocessors as for example the UCSD PASCAL in the Apple II Plus computer system made by Apple Computer INc Cupertino Calif The PASCAL implementation is expressed by a pro cedure labeled autoinsert This procedure is invoked by a procedure call not shown which passes numerical parameter values defining the current position of the display cursor in respect of the table being formatted The other formal parameters in this procedure autoin sert are eob a control character defining the end of a character string start defining the beginnin
28. tor can key in revisions by way of example Again the revised layout is saved Automatic Intercolumn Spacing The method of the invention is invoked during a column layout mode when an operator requests the word processing system to justify the specified col umns proportionally from each other and the specified margins According to the method the operator keys in an example for each column specifying the width and the tab stops for each column Each example must be separated by at least one space This may be clearly seen in the illustration shown at the top of FIG 5 Each of the column examples is under a scale line which regis ters the tab stops If the operator has keyed in the three columns with varied spacing therebetween as repre sented by repeated text character a s the intercolumn spacing function is invoked by stroking a dedicated COLUMN LAYOUT function key The machine responds by determining the amount of unoccupied line widths dividing it by the number of gutters and then inserting space characters so that the gutters between adjacent columns are even Reference should be made to the method flow dia gram also depicted in FIG 5 Starting at the top the following method steps are responsive to the function key actuation after the operator has entered a column example line First the microprocessor 16 scans the column example line to determine the number of col umns the number of gutters and the number of gra
29. trol is relinquished to the while do loop between lines 13 16 Consequently the moment an END OF LINE rcr is encountered control is transferred from the outer while do loop of lines 11 24 to the determi nation bounded by conditional statements 25 27 At line 25 if at least one gutter is found then it is necessary to obtain the number of characters available to the right margin That is in line 27 if the total occu pied characters of the column widths plus a minimum of one space per gutter is less than or equal to the right and left margin differences then the line width is set equal to the difference between the right and left margins This implementation assumes that the cursor position monotonically increases from left margin to right mar gin Line 28 represents the computation of the inter column spacing Here the unoccupied character escape ment represented by two integer variables spacing and xtra Spacing is assigned the integer quotient value of linewidth totcolwidth divided by guttercount Xtra represents the integer remainder of the division and is assigned the value of linewidth totcolwidth modulo guttercount After this the cursor is reposi tioned by line 29 to the start of the column example line 4 484 826 9 The repeat until loop embraced within lines 30 45 mechanizes the insertion of spacing characters between each column that is the distribution of the intercolumn sp
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search