#@ $Header: /home/kline/TeX/RCS/README,v 1.3 1995/07/06 00:33:09 kline Exp klin
$Header: /home/kline/devel/atom/RCS/README,v 1.3 1998/10/17 20:14:40 kline Exp kline $


                                   README                                         
  
  
  I hacked the foundation of this filter together in the fall of 1994 
  when trying to find a means of turning "...and " into ``...and '' 
  for TeX and LaTeX or HTML format.  Once this filtering was done, I 
  decide to add a very basic italicization option.  My personal means 
  of indicating italics in an ASCII message or other text is to use 
  asterisk delimiters.  This can easily be changed in atom.h.

  In the TeX  markup world, 

	"I said *no*!"

  becomes:

	``I said {\em no\/}!''

  The above output is now ready for the standard TeX or latex processing.
  It was easy to add the ellipses markup for TeX.  HTML has no markup tags
  to indicate that three periods indicate an ellipse; at least not in
  HTML-3.0.

  atom automatically translates typewriter quote into those which are displayed 
  as properly typeset quotation marks for Tex (and LaTeX) or HTML.
  
  This filter also turns italics-delimited words or phrases into italics
  when displayed by TeX or HTML.  The default delimiter to indicate that 
  italics be displayed is the asterisk.  This is configurable.
  And, for TeX only, atom correctly displays ellipses.
  
  The default is to handle italics and ellipses under TeX, and to do
  processes any italics-delimited word or words into HTML italics.   Given 
  the -e and the -i flags, atom will not do this processing.
  
  You must specify either -h for HTML; the -t for TeX is the default.
  
  Any series of three dots  (...)  is, for TeX, considered to be an
  ellipse.
  
  If you have a physical break of five newlines in your input file--to
  indicate a change of topic or thought or a length of time passing by--
  atom -p <file> will insert a physical space break into your output file.
  For HTML, the ``-p'' flag will print five <BR> tags; for LaTeX, atom 
  will print the markup ``\vspace*{.r}''.

  atom also processes ``center'' lines that you have carefully, with spaces,
  centered.  Such as:

                             This line is Centered

  But if you use the -c flag to find space-centered lines, note that atom will
  ignore all space-indented paragraphs.  I added this last bit pretty much
  as an after-thought.  It only took a few hours to plug in, and for the
  rare case it might be useful.  Bear in mind that I originally hacked atom
  together to do quote filtering only and that atom will probably be most useful
  as simply a quotation filter, plain and simple.

  atom prints very simple header and footer tags for HTML and ``%%%'' 
  comment-lines for TeX markup.  For HTML, these begin/end tags are a
  bit more sophisticated, but make no assumptions about the layout of
  your HTML document: all text is contained within <BODY>, </BODY>
  delimiters.  You plug in whatever you require within the <HEAD>, </HEAD>
  delimiters and elsewhere.

				   Gutenberg

  In late 1996 I added a -G flag which attempts to translate the early
  Project Gutenberg etexts into HTML or TeX format.  
  ..
  ..
  ..

  In late 1998 I yanked killed the effort, thus returning atom to its
  original purpose of being a _simple_ filter.


  Acknowledgments:
  I have pulled in various freeware and copyright code such as Kjetil Homme's
  trace code and some 4BSD code and others, modified slightly.  Primarily
  well-proven code rather than re-invent such wheels and gears.

  If anyone wishes to add further power or flexibility to atom without
  turning this simple filter into yet another quasi-markup language, go
  ahead.  I ask only that you send me any mods or bug-fixes.  Comments
  received have given me new non-markup ideas; thanks here duly noted to
  the dozens of people who have send mail and comments on this filter.
  Comments still welcome, of course.

  ---
  Doc Revision 1.4:  This program now compiles under BSD, SunOS-4, and 
  any SVR4.  It should be easily portable to other platforms.  


			The test file

  Experimentation with the file named "testFile" is the fastest means
  of understanding what this filter does--and does not do.  Compile,
  install, and play around!

  In  October, 2005, I made HTML the default.  The TeX code is 
  there must it does very little.  Eventually it may vanish.  As 
  good as TeX is, the simpler, slightly less capable, markup is winning.



  ---
  Copyright (C), 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2005  by Gary D. Kline
  This software is placed under distribution restrictions and rights
  according to the GNU General Public License.  See the file ``COPYING''
  included, or write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
  675 Mass Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

  
  Gary Kline	
  kline@thought.org

