ANNOUNCEMENT (18th October 2003):

• SATFORM and SATFILTER 1.00.00 released.
  • New: Subscript/Superscript tags.
  • New: ltrim, rtrim and trim tags.
  • New: Delta and Omega special characters (See Special Characters).
  • Bug fixes (See Bugs).

ANNOUNCEMENT (24th March 2002):

• Documentation update.
  • Fixed HTML bugs which caused problems with some browsers (For example: Konqueror).
  • Minor changes to text to improve clarity.
  • All images converted from "jpeg" to "gif" to reduce size.

• What is SATFILTER
• How SATFILTER Works
• Examples
• Release Status
• System Requirements
• Installation
• Reference Guide
• Release History
• Bugs

What is SATFILTER

SATFILTER is a filter which provides a facility to print "word processor" quality letters/reports using the same (SAT/ML) markup language as SATFORM. The output is suitable for HP LaserJet III (PCL), or later, compatible printers.

SATFILTER is implemented as a script for easy portability.

How SATFILTER works

SATFILTER uses an HTML style markup system (SAT/ML). As many people are familiar with HTML it was decided to copy this style. Some of the tags function as they do in HTML, others don't, and many are specific to SAT/ML.

SATFILTER reads data from standard input and processes any SAT/ML tags and macros imbedded in the data to produce the final (LaserJet PCL) formatted result.

Release Status

SATFILTER is currently at release 1.00.00

System Requirements

Any Unix system with a version of nawk/gawk which supports toupper and tolower.

Installation

To extract the Unix "tar" files

• Create a directory for the extract (mkdir sat).
• Change to the directory (cd sat).
• Copy the "tar" file(s) into the directory.
• Then extract the "tar" files using the Unix tar command (For example: tar -xvof sat.tar).

Release History

1.00.00	10/2003	New: Subscript/Superscript tags. New: "ltrim", "trim" and "rtrim" tags. New: Delta and Omega special characters. Fixes: Problem with "{}" in regexp for some AWKs. Fixes: Problem losing trailing zero in "abs". Fixes: Problem with "repeat". Fixes: Problem with external tag parameters.
Beta4	12/2001	New: String Macros.
Beta3	06/2001	Fixes: Special Characters sometimes not being processed.
Beta2	05/2001	Fixes: Incorrect numeric comparisons in Conditional Macros when either operand is a single digit integer -and- Hang/crash problem when Macro body contains a Special Character. New: Case Macros.
Beta1	04/2001	Release status change only.
Alpha2	12/2000	Fixes: "close" syntax problem with some AWK interpreters.
Alpha1	10/2000	First public release.

Known Bugs

Release	Bug	Fixed in
Beta4	Problem with "{}" in regexp for some AWKs. Problem losing trailing zero in "abs". Problem with "repeat". Problem with external tag parameters.	1.00.00
Beta2	Special Characters sometimes not processed.	Beta3
Beta1	Incorrect numeric comparisons in Conditional Macros when either operand is a single digit integer -and- Hang/crash problem when Macro body contains a Special Character.	Beta2
Alpha1	Hang/Core Dump problem when variable data contains an ampersand (&) -and- "close" syntax problem with some AWK interpreters.	Alpha2