Subject: [FFML] Anyone have a tool for wrapping text files?
From: Philip Mak
Date: 8/20/2000, 3:56 AM
To: ffml@fanfic.com

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone here has a tool (preferably something that can
be run from the UNIX command line, like a perl script or C script) that
will take a text file (fanfic) as input and rewrap the lines properly. Any
suggestions on a good algorithm for doing this would also be appreciated.

There are three kinds of miswrapped lines, as far as I know:

(1) long line-short line, e.g.:

If it failed, I'd look a little silly. But if it worked... I began to
tremble a little. To have
Gourry-sama's love... that was worth the risk of looking foolish.

There were other voices from around the corner, which I ignored, just
as I ignored whatever
voice was whispering inside of me, telling me that this was wrong.

(2) lines that are wrapped to a width greater than 79, e.g.:

If it failed, I'd look a little silly. But if it worked... I began to tremble a
little. To have
Gourry-sama's love... that was worth the risk of looking foolish.

There were other voices from around the corner, which I ignored, just as I
ignored whatever
voice was whispering inside of me, telling me that this was wrong.

(3) lines that are not wrapped at all, e.g.:

If it failed, I'd look a little silly. But if it worked... I began to tremble a
little. To have Gourry-sama's love... that was worth the risk of looking
foolish.

There were other voices from around the corner, which I ignored, just as I
ignored whatever voice was whispering inside of me, telling me that this was
wrong.

---

I realize that such a tool exists at the autoresponder
cleanup@thekeep.org. The problem I found with that program is that it
relies on there being a blank line between each paragraph. This will not
work for me, because I am looking to create a tool that I can apply to a
whole archive of fanfics without having to supervise it. Not all fanfics
have blank lines between paragraphs (e.g. some use tabs instead), and
things like

======================================================================
                        The Koi on Her Breast
                            by Philip Mak
======================================================================

could end up as

======================================================================
The Koi on Her Breast by Philip Mak
======================================================================

when wrapped in this fashion.

Please send responses privately to me at pmak@aaanime.net.

Of course, I will post a link to the tool for everyone's benefit when I
have it finished.

Thanks,

-Philip Mak (pmak@aaanime.net)




-- .---Anime/Manga Fanfiction Mailing List---. | Administrators - ffml-admins@fanfic.com | | Unsubscribing - ffml-request@fanfic.com | | Put 'unsubscribe' in the subject | `---http://www.fanfic.com/FFML-FAQ.txt ---'