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@@ -0,0 +1,130 @@ +.TH JUST 1 +.UC 4 +.SH NAME +just \- text justification program +.SH SYNOPSIS +.nf +just [-<width>] [-t<tolerance>] [file...] +.SH DESCRIPTION +.I Just +takes one or more files containing text and justifies them to a specified +width, sending the result to standard output. +Default <width> is 72. (The default can be changed by creating a file +in the current directory called ".justwidth" and containing a number.) +If no files are given +.I just +takes its data from standard input. Thus either of the following commands +show the simplest use of +.I just +.PP +just oldtext > newtext +.br +just < oldtext > newtext +.PP +This is a simple text formatting program, designed for situations +where the more complex facilities of +.I nroff +or +.I troff +are not required. +It formats according to the following rules: +.PP +1) blank lines remain blank. +.br +2) if a line begins with spaces, these are preserved and it is not +merged with the previous one. +.br +3) lines which begin with 8 or more spaces (equiv one tab), +or which have a '>' sign in column 1, have their layout frozen completely. +.PP +Otherwise each line is merged with the previous line and reformatted so +as to maximise the number of words in the line and then justify it to the +specified width. During reformatting the following two extra rules are +observed: +.PP +(a) Between any of the sentence +terminators '.', '?', '!', and a following word on the same line, +a minimum of +two spaces will be preserved if present in the original text. +.PP +(b) Justification (i.e. padding out to the exact width) +is not performed on a line when +it would require the insertion of more than +.I <tolerance> +extra spaces in any one place. This rule is added to make +.I just +behave sensibly when formatting to a width allowing only a small +number of words per line, eg for a newspaper column. +The default tolerance is 3. +.PP +These rules +are quite well adapted to the conventions of normal English text, and +enable +.I just +to be used to format letters, and a variety of simple documents. +Rule (3) provides two conventions whereby fragments of program, tables etc, +can be embedded in such documents and protected from reformatting. +Note that +.I just +can safely be applied to its own output, eg to reformat to different widths. +(Reapplying +.I just +with the same width will leave the text unchanged.) +.PP +.I Just +removes tabs from lines which it is reformatting, replacing them by +spaces. (But tabs in frozen lines will be left alone.) +.PP +.I Just +knows about underlining (in the style "underline-backspace-character...") +and handles underlined words and sentences correctly. +When preparing text which is to be continuously underlined across wordbreaks, +each non-final line of underlined input should have a trailing +underlined space. +.PP +Setting <tolerance> to zero, as in +`just -t0' will cause reformatting without justification. Specifying a +negative width also has this effect. That is `just --72' means +`just -72 -t0'. +.SH SEE ALSO +vi(1) +.br +fmt(1) - the advantages of just +over fmt are that it can format to different widths +(fmt is fixed at 72), that it does justification, and that it knows about +underlining. Like fmt, just +is conveniently called from inside vi, by using the `!' command. + +Examples, of using +.I just +inside +.I vi: +To reformat a paragraph, position the +cursor at, or just above, the beginning of the paragraph, and say +.br +!}just +.br +To reformat the whole document say +.br +:1,$!just +.br +These are standard applications of the vi `!' command, which pipes +pieces of text through an arbitrary UNIX command called from inside +the editor - see vi documentation for more information.) +.SH BUGS +When preparing input text, you have to remember to leave at least one +space at the front of each line which is not preceded by a blank line +and which you +.I don't +want merged with the previous line, e.g. successive lines of an address. +Note that this means that +.I just +cannot be used to reformat a paragraph all of whose lines are indented. +(This is the one respect in which +.I fmt +is superior to +.I just.) +.SH AUTHOR +Research Software Limited. +.I Just +is included in the distribution file for Miranda(tm). |