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 SATFORM
• How SATFORM Works
• Examples
• Release Status
• System Requirements
• Installation
• Reference Guide
• Release History
• Bugs

What is SATFORM

SATFORM is a forms processor which provides a facility to print "word processor" quality letters/reports by merging a data source with a template form. The output is suitable for HP LaserJet III (PCL), or later, compatible printers.

Although designed to work with other SAT components, SATFORM is equally effective when used "stand alone". It is very easy to create shell/awk/perl scripts which make use of SATFORM functionality to create letters/reports/mail-shots etc.

It is also possible to make use of SAT/ML formatting to process embeded SAT/ML tags using the companion SATFILTER script.

SATFORM is implemented as a script for easy portability.

How SATFORM works

SATFORM uses an HTML style markup system (SAT/ML) to define document template forms. As many people are familiar with HTML it was decided to copy this style. Some of the tags function as they do in HTML, but many have functionallity specific to SAT/ML.

The format required for merge data is simple, making it easy to format data from a variety sources, for example, "flat" files.

The (SAT/ML) document template forms are merged variable data to produce the final (LaserJet PCL) formatted result.

See the Examples page for sample SAT/ML and scripts.

Release Status

SATFORM 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	Numeric right justify supports numbers containing commas.
Alpha2	12/2000	Fixes: Hang/Core Dump problem when variable data contains an ampersand (&) -and- "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