.fin
.all
     To format documents precisely, you can use either of two "commands" and
their associated formatting controls.  The simpler of the two is the
format_doc command.  It has eight controls that enable you to specify page
length and width, alignment, and indentation.  It is very useful for simply
formatted documents like letters.  The compose command, on the other hand, has
many more controls and can thus be used for both simple and complex documents.
It provides additional capacity for, among other things, footnoting, varying
the length of pages, and creating tables.

     Use of these two commands is very easy.  For example, to format a
document with the format_doc command, you simply use the name of the "segment"
containing the document's text as the "pathname argument" for the command (the
segment's name must have the suffix '.fdocin' but it need not be supplied on
the "command line"):

format_doc letter_seg -output_file letter

The command then reads the controls in 'letter_seg' and formats the document
accordingly.  The output_file "control argument" specifies that the formatted
document is to be placed in a segment named 'letter.'  That segment can then
be printed out on a printing machine.

     Below is an example of a segment that contains formatting controls.  The
controls used are those for the format_doc command, though in this example
they are identical to some of the controls used by the compose command.  Note
that each control must be preceded by a period at the beginning of the line
and be placed on the line by itself.  (The numbers at the left in this example
are reference points for the explanation that follows; they should not be used
when formatting text.)
.fif

1   .pdw 60
2   .fif
3   .in 35
.fin

     Line 1 sets the line length (page width) to 60 characters.  Line 2 turns
fill mode off so that the partial lines that make up the date and address are
not run together to fill up 60 character lines.  Line 3 indents the date 35
spaces.
.fif

4   January 6, 1983
5   
6
7   .in
.fin

     Lines 5 and 6 will come out blank in the formatted document.
Line 7 resets the indentation to the left margin.
.fif

8   Zimmerman Widget Company
9   53698 Dixie Highway
10  Drayton Plains, Michigan  28999
11
12  Dear Sir:
13
14  .fin
.fin

     Line 14 turns fill mode on so that the body of the letter is filled out
in 60 character lines.
.fif

15  Thank you for delivering a new set of widgets.  We will put them to use
16  immediately.
17
18  .in 35
19  Sincerely,
20
21  Michael P. Marley
.fin

     Finally, line 18 indents the signature block the same as the date.  The
formatting control on line 18 keeps the indentation in effect for line 21 as
well as line 19.  In fact, when the '.in' control is used with a particular
value, that indentation stays in effect until the '.in' control is used again
with another value.


                                          -----------------------------------------------------------


Historical Background

This edition of the Multics software materials and documentation is provided and donated
to Massachusetts Institute of Technology by Group BULL including BULL HN Information Systems Inc. 
as a contribution to computer science knowledge.  
This donation is made also to give evidence of the common contributions of Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
Bell Laboratories, General Electric, Honeywell Information Systems Inc., Honeywell BULL Inc., Groupe BULL
and BULL HN Information Systems Inc. to the development of this operating system. 
Multics development was initiated by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Project MAC (1963-1970),
renamed the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence in the mid 1970s, under the leadership
of Professor Fernando Jose Corbato. Users consider that Multics provided the best software architecture 
for managing computer hardware properly and for executing programs. Many subsequent operating systems 
incorporated Multics principles.
Multics was distributed in 1975 to 2000 by Group Bull in Europe , and in the U.S. by Bull HN Information Systems Inc., 
as successor in interest by change in name only to Honeywell Bull Inc. and Honeywell Information Systems Inc. .

                                          -----------------------------------------------------------

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute these programs and their documentation for any purpose and without
fee is hereby granted,provided that the below copyright notice and historical background appear in all copies
and that both the copyright notice and historical background and this permission notice appear in supporting
documentation, and that the names of MIT, HIS, BULL or BULL HN not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining
to distribution of the programs without specific prior written permission.
    Copyright 1972 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Honeywell Information Systems Inc.
    Copyright 2006 by BULL HN Information Systems Inc.
    Copyright 2006 by Bull SAS
    All Rights Reserved