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 value cr

The various parameter values are:

Column construct

%CO:co1umn,width,wrap-width%

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

General format:

construct text construct text ... cr