Ibm-pc, Amiga
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| Vortex v1.5 ~~~~~~~~~~~ An universal accented character converter Vortex will convert all accented characters common to a pair of computers (Amiga <-> IBM-PC, Amiga <-> MacIntosh or IBM-PC <-> Mac). Unfortunately, not all accented characters are convertible because some computers have an incomplete set of accented capitals; did you know that only the Amiga offers a complete set of lower and upper case accented characters for most european languages? Naturally, only common characters can be converted from one computer to another. For conversions to and from the IBM-PC, Vortex assumes that the extended character set is used, although this may not be the case for older PCs that use the standard set, which is much poorer (only 5 accented capitals). Then, the user may get some graphic characters and mathematic symbols instead of certain accented capitals... The standard ASCII set (0-127), true to its american origin, ignores accented characters. This is too bad, because there are only two latin alphabet languages without accents: english and ... dutch. So, accented characters had to be patched up, and the result was called "extended ASCII set" (128-255). Good idea, but every computer came up with its own standard! Commodore implemented the international convention codes on the Amiga, but was the only one to do so (nice shot anyway, Commodore). In a nutshell, Vortex will work for all languages provided with a keymap (danish, finnish, french, german, italian, islandic, norwegian, spanish, swedish), and any other language using only "standard" accents (acute, grave and circumflex accents, plus the tilde and the dieresis), that is, most west european languages, and then some. NOTE: Vortex converts files, but not the diskette format. It won't read IBM, Mac or C64 diskettes. You have to copy the file to be processed on an Amiga disk. To do so, you can use utilities like DOS2DOS, CrossDOS or MessyDOS (Amiga <-> IBM), Mac2DOS or File Transfer (Amiga <-> Mac), or Transfer (C64 <-> Amiga). You can also use a modem. Vortex does not replace any of the above-mentionned utilities. USAGE (from the CLI): ~~~~~ vortex source_file [destination_file] -direction [-options...] where: DIRECTION: -ai/-ia: Amiga -> IBM-PC /or vice versa choose one: -am/-ma: Amiga -> Mac /or vice versa -im/-mi: IBM-PC -> Mac /or vice versa -ca: C64(Traitex) -> Amiga OPTIONS: -wp: Word Perfect source file [optional] -aw: ASCII -> Word Perfect -sl/-sl0: Converts line feeds /or keeps them -nc: No accent conversion -tx: Replace tabs by x spaces Source and Destination Files: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Parameters between braces are optional; if no destination file name is given, Vortex will create one by appending ".vx" to the source file name (thus, "yuck" gives "yuck.vx"). Moreover, any of the first three parameters may include an AmigaDOS path: thus, 1> vortex df1:texts/donald.doc ram:daffy.doc -ai will read in the Amiga ASCII file "donald.doc" from the "texts" directory in df1: and create the converted Amiga ASCII file "daffy.doc" in ram:. ASCII file conversion selects -sl as default (-sl0 to override it). Another example: 1> df1:c/vortex myfile -ia -wp -t4 will run Vortex from df1:c and read the Word Perfect IBM file "myfile" in the current directory, where "myfile.vx" (Amiga WP file) will be created. Option -wp selects -sl0 as default. Note that in the above example, option -t4 will convert tabs to 4 spaces. NOTE: To speed up a conversion, copy your source file to ram:. Vortex is quite fast: it can convert a 40K file in 10 seconds or less. No wonder:it is written in C. Direction and Options: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following parameters (direction and options) must be preceded by a dash and they can be in any order or number. You may use many options, or none, but you have to use one (and only one) direction. Remember: one direction is needed, but options are... well, optional. If two parameters give opposite results (ex. -sl and -sl0), the last one prevails. Directions: -ai -am -ia -im -ma and -mi: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The first letter designates the source computer and the second one, the destination computer. Thus, -ai means Amiga -> IBM-PC. Direction -ca: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Vortex will also convert Traitex files (Commodore 64/128) to Amiga files (ASCII or WP). This is a special case because every C64 word processor uses its own codes for the accents... Option -ca can convert with unequal success other C64 files using screen codes, like PaperClip or Scripsit files, but not PETSCII files. (If you don't know what they are, you don't need to read this in the first place). Note that the -ca direction ignores all the options below except -aw. Option -wp: ~~~~~~~~~~ Option -wp converts Word Perfect files from one computer to another. Why Word Perfect? Because it's the only word processor implemented on 4 different machines (this, in turn, creates a need for Vortex). Besides, it's my favorite word processor... Please note that Prowrite, Excellence and Brand X users should save their files with the ASCII (or Text) option before feeding them to Vortex if straight file conversion does not work. Option -aw will convert ASCII files to WP files, but not the reverse, because the "Save Text File" option in Word Perfect already does that. Likewise, Vortex creates WP 4.2 files (and not WP 5.x files) from ASCII files because WP 5.x accepts and converts WP 4.2 files. In short, I kept Vortex streamlined and fast by restricting its options to those not already provided by Word Perfect. Option -aw: ~~~~~~~~~~ To convert an ASCII file to a WP file, use option -aw. This option was implemented because WP will not load correctly an ASCII file with accented characters. Try it and see what I mean. Option -aw selects -sl0 as default. The file format may be slightly disturbed, but at least, every word is displayed. Options -sl and -sl0: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Vortex can also convert the line feed character(s), which vary for each computer. (simple line feed (LF) for the Amiga, carriage return + line feed (CR + LF) for the PC and simple carriage return (CR) for the Mac). Option -sl is chosen by default for ASCII file conversions (-sl0 will cancel it), and option -sl0 is selected with -wp and -aw options. Option -nc: ~~~~~~~~~~ With option -nc, source accented characters are left unconverted. This option is used with options -aw, -sl and -tx (below) to change the file format, the line feeds or the tabs without changing anything else. example: 1> vortex mystuff -ai -nc -aw will convert an Amiga ASCII file to an Amiga WP file. Note that direction -ia, cancelled by -aw, is a bogus valus, but it has to be there to enable the ASCII -> WP conversion process. other example: 1> vortex ram:myletter df0:myletter -ai -nc This line uses Vortex as a simple file copier. Nothing is changed. other example: 1> vortex mytext -ai -nc -sl This line will change the LF to CR+LF in mytext.vx, and nothing else. one last example: 1> vortex blurp -am -t4 -nc This line will only replace all the tabs by 4 spaces in blurp.vx. Option -txx ~~~~~~~~~~~ Vortex can also convert tabs to spaces (1-20), which is handy for texts that have been formatted with non standard tab values (telltale sign: when you see a scrambled text on your screen). Normally, a tabulation character stands for 8 spaces (ASCII) or 5 spaces (WP). Give it a few tries and you will become an ace text straightener (and eventually get hired as a ghost writer for some politician). How to use with a mouse ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Vortex is a CLI-only command, but it comes with an icon on this disk. Double-clicking on "XVortex" launches a Xicon-driven batch file that opens a CLI ("endcli" to exit) and prints the instructions. If you copy XVortex to another disk, make sure that Vortex itself is copied, and don't forget to copy Xicon in your disk's c: directory. You can program Vortex with all the options you need with batch files, WP macros, hot keys or in a directory utility like Disk Master or SID. With DM, all you need is the line: c:Vortex %s -ai -wp to convert a WP file from Amiga to IBM. Two mouse clicks and look what happens: a cute .vx file appears in the file requester. Any comment is welcome. Michel Lalibert� Montr�al, February 1991 NOTE: ASCII files exported to the Mac should not be loaded in MacWrite, which uses its own format for text files. MS Word, which uses ASCII files, is a better choice. Download 9.5 Kb. Share with your friends:
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