10/02/85  Format of a Listform Segment

A listform segment defines the format of a document to be produced
from a list of records.  Its format consists of three parts: before
section, record section, and after section.

The before section is added to the document as a preface before any
records are processed.  It can contain any desired text, including
compose controls.  Its syntax is
   <Begin before:>...text...<end;>
where "text" is ASCII text except that you must enter any < characters
as "<<".


The record section describes the document format for each lister file
record processed.  It contains field value strings to be copied from
the lister file being processed, compose controls, and any desired
text.  Its syntax is
   <Begin record:>...text and <fieldname,W,J>...<end;>
where "fieldname" is the name of one of the fields in the lister
segment or :argN, where N is an integer or :date or :time or
:record_count; W is an integer specifying the field width to use
when placing a field value into the output; and J is the letter "l,"
"c," or "r" to indicate whether the field value should be left
justified, centered, or right justified within the W columns.  W and J
are optional.  The default for W is the actual width of the field
value; for J is left justification.


The after section is added to the document after all records are
processed.  It can contain any desired text, including compose
controls.  Its syntax is
   <Begin after:>...text...<end;>

To include any kind of arguments in a listform segment, you can insert
<:argN> at the desired location in the segment.  The control argument
-ag STR in the process_list command is then used to substitute the
desired string into the listform document.


Using listform segments, you can insert in a list processing document
the current date, the present time, and the number of records being
processed with the current command invocation.  You can insert this
special fields separately in any of the three sections, using the
format
   <:date>
   <:time>
   <:record_count>
When you invoke process_list with a listform segment containing any of
these fields, the specified information is inserted into the document
being printed; no need to give control arguments in the command line.

For related topics see lister.gi and listin_segment.gi; for examples
see the Multics WORDPRO Reference Manual (AZ98).


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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. .

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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