Editing unit

Claim 1

AN EDITING UNIT FOR A DATA PROCESSOR FOR EDITING CHARACTERS OF INFORMATION COMPRISING: ADDRESSABLE MEMORY MEANS FOR STORING INFORMATION REPRESENTED BY A SOURCE STRING OF CHARACTER SIGNALS AND A DESTINATION STRING OF CHARACTER SIGNALS AND FOR STORING A PROGRAM STRING OF SYLLABLE SIGNALS, EACH SYLLABLE IDENTIFYING A COMPLETE EDITING OPERATION AND THE NUMBER OF SOURCE AND DESTINATION STRING CHARACTERS TO BE OPERATED UPON, THE CHARACTERS AND SYLLABLES BEING ARRANGED IN WORDS, SAID MEMORY MEANS INCLUDING SEQUENTIALLY ADDRESSABLE MEMORY LOCATIONS FOR STORING SAID WORDS; MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID MEMORY FOR SEQUENTIALLY READING INFORMATION OUT OF SAID MEMORY A WORD AT A TIME; REGISTER MEANS RESPONSIVELY CONNECTED FOR INDIVIDUALLY STORING A SOURCE WORD, A DESTINATION WORD, AND A PROGRAM WORD READ OUT OF SAID MEMORY MEANS; MEANS FOR SEQUENTIALLY EXECUTING THE PROGRAM SYLLABLES ON THE NUMBER OF CHARACTERS OF THE SOURCE AND DESTINATION WORDS STORED IN SAID REGISTER MEANS AS IS SPECIFIED BY EACH PROGRAM SYLLABLE OF THE PROGRAM WORD STORED IN SAID REGISTER MEANS AND FOR CAUSING MODIFIED AND EDITED DESTINATION WORDS TO BE STORED IN THE REGISTER MEANS, SAID READING MEANS INCLUDING A SOURCE READ MEANS CONNECTED FOR SELECTIVELY READING OUT THE NEXT SEQUENTIALLY ADDRESSABLE SOURCE WORD AFTER A PROGRAM OPERATION HAS BEEN INITIATED UPON EACH CHARACTER OF THE SOURCE WORD STORED IN SAID REGISTER MEANS, DESTINATION READ MEANS CONNECTED FOR SELECTIVELY READING OUT THE NEXT SEQUENTIALLY ADDRESSABLE DESTINATION WORD AFTER A PROGRAM OPERATION HAS BEEN INITIATED UPON EACH CHARACTER OF THE STORED DESTINATION WORD, AND PROGRAM READ MEANS CONNECTED FOR SELECTIVELY READING OUT THE NEXT SEQUENTIALLY ADDRESSABLE PROGRAM WORD AFTER THE EXECUTION OF EACH OF THE SYLLABLES OF A STORED PROGRAM WORD HAS BEEN INITIATED; AND MEANS CONNECTED FOR SELECTIVELY WRITING A STORED DESTINATION WORD AS EDITED BACK INTO SAID MEMORY MEANS AFTER INITIATING PROGRAM OPERATIONS UPON EACH CHARACTER THEREOF.