International Business Machines Corporation

James Wilson Toups

William Weller Boyd

Wayne Finis Rogers

A system for automatically arranging a stored sequence ot textural character codes and control codes to provide textual line lengths within a predetermined range. If a tab code is detected within the stored sequence, the amount of line length corresponding to the tab code is calculated by the control logic, since the tab code, itself, includes no indication of the amount of line length for execution of the tab code. The number of character codes and space codes on a line containing a tab code is reduced to accommodate the line length required to execute the tab code upon print-out by a printer. In forming a group of codes corresponding to a line, a hyphenation decision may be necessary when inclusion of a word at the end of a line would result in too great a line length, while exclusion of the word would result in too short a line length. When hyphenation decisions are to be made during automatic adjustment of the stored code sequence, only the word involved in the hyphenation decision is printed for operator viewing. The number of the line on which the decision must be made is also printed, since this may influence the hyphenation decision. Further, another indication is included with the print-out if the word involved in the hyphenation decision is the last word of a paragraph. No other printing is performed during this automatic margin adjusting operation and, thus, the printer functions only as an operator readable output device when hyphenation decisions are required. The time required to adjust the margins of a page of text in this manner can, therefore, be extremely short in comparison to the time required when printing is included in the adjust operation, because the operation disclosed herein is not limited by the speed of the printer.

Margin adjusting of textual codes in a memory

An unattended printing system in which the operator keys in a page line count defining the number of lines to be printed on a page from codes derived from a shift register memory which is automatically loaded from a pack feed magnetic read/recorder. Logic is provided which, in the event that the text being played out does not equal a full page, automatic indexes or carrier returns will be generated to cause the page to be fed such that the printing mechanism is then in alignment with the first line of the next page. While page feeding occurs the memory is also automatically cleared; a new card is fed and reading of new codes into the shift register initiated. In addition, in the event that the margins on the machine which is being used for playout differ from the margins which were used during source recording, in the event that a fewer number of lines of text result, the proper number of indexes for this fewer number of lines to cause proper alignment on the next page will be output. Further, in the event that the margins are changed such that the lines being printed out on the printer are shorter than those originally recorded, proper indexing for this greater number of lines to place the following page in proper alignment will be output provided that the total lines of text output do not exceed the page count entered. In the normal case line endings will have been determined and the margins will not be changed to prevent possible systems stoppage for hyphenation decisions.

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Austin, TX, United States of America

James Wilson Toups