Appendix E - PipeDream file format

Appendix E - PipeDream file format

The PipeDream file format is designed to facilitate manipulation by other programs. Apart from carriage return characters which are used as separators, no control characters or characters above 127 in value appear in the file (unless they have been explicitly typed in). The files are sequential, and can be edited by any text editor.

PipeDream constructs

Information about the structure of the file is stored in constructs consisting of one or more alphabetic characters between percent signs. Additional information relevant to the construct may be included before the final percent sign.

The file begins with a group of Options Page constructs giving the values of the Options Page parameters for the file. This is followed by the main body of the file.

Each column in the file is preceded by a Column construct giving details about the column, and followed by an entry for each slot in the column.

Each slot entry may include a collection of constructs giving details about the slot, and is terminated by a carriage return character.

Options Page construct

%OP%parameter val ue cr

parameter    two characters identifying the parameter

value    the value of the parameter

cr    carriage return character

The various parameter values are:

AM Auto/manual

BM    Bottom margin

BO    Borders

DE    Title

DP    Decimal places

FM    Footer margin

FO    Footer

HE    Header

HM Header margin

IW    Insert on wrap

JU    Justify

LM    Left margin

LP    Leading characters

LS    Line spacing

MB    Minus/brackets

PA    Pages

PL    Page length

PS    Page no. start

RC    Rows/columns

TM    Top margin

TN    Text/numbers

TP    Trailing characters WR Wrap

Column construct %CO:co1umn,width,wrap-width%

column letter identifying the column

width decimal number giving the column width wrap-width    decimal number giving the wrap-width

These constructs can appear anywhere in the entry for each slot:

%B%    brackets format

%C%    centre align

%Dn%    decimal places, n gives the number

%DF%    floating format

%F%    free align

%Hn%    highlight character: n gives the number

%JL%    justify left

%JR%    justify right

%L%    left align

%LC%    leading character format

%LCR%    LCR align

%Pn%    page break: n gives the argument, 0 for unconditional

%PC%    percent character

%R%    right align

%TC%    trailing character format

%V%    slot is a number slot

General format:

construct text construct text    cr

construct    one of the constructs above

text    ASCII characters being the slot contents

cr    carriage return character