Abstract A system in which a keyboard is used to enter codes into a bulk dynamic shift register which in turn selectively loads a smaller intermediate dynamic shift register which, upon command provides unformatted codes to be displayed to a formatting control system which formats the codes and loads them into a refresh or frame buffer. The frame buffer which is a random access memory outputs the formatted codes to an associated character generator and display. Complete formatting of the data to be displayed is accomplished during loading of the refresh buffer. No formatting is done between the refresh buffer and the character generator since the formatting performed prior to the loading of the characters in the refresh buffer is complete such that the data stored in the refresh buffer is identical to the data and format which would occur on printout if the unformatted characters from the intermediate dynamic shift register were input to a printer. During formatting an electronic tab stop is used, and the tab stop locations may be changed without the reentering of text characters. Further, during formatting, in the event that a format step cannot be completed prior to the output of another character from the intermediate shift register, the intermediate shift register is stopped to allow completion of the long format step. This situation usually occurs during a tab operation or a word underscore operation. If the long format operation can not be completed prior to the dying of the dynamic shift register, the shift register will be timed out and automatically rotated for another cycle to rejuvenate it.
A formatting system for formatting textual data on a display in the same format as the textual data would appear upon printout on a printer, said system comprising: first means for storing codes representative of said textual data and format control codes, means for entering said codes into said first storage means, means operatively connected to said first storage means and responsive to said codes for completely formatting said textual data under control of said control codes a second storage means operatively connected to said means for formatting for storing said completely formatted textual data said second storage means having an electronic tab rack having operator set tab positions, said means for formatting further including means responsive to said second storage means for controlling tab operations operative upon the detection of a tab control code, said means for controlling including means for terminating the transmission of codes representative of textual data to said means for formatting and means responsive to said means for terminating for entering spaces sequentially into said second storage means until one of said tab positions in said electronic tab rack is detected; and means for displaying said completely formatted textual data operatively connected to said second storage means.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
202 words
A formatting system for formatting textual data on a display in the same format as the textual data would appear upon printout on a printer, said system comprising: first means for storing codes representative of said textual data and format control codes, means for entering said codes into said first storage means, means operatively connected to said first storage means and responsive to said codes for completely formatting said textual data under control of said control codes a second storage means operatively connected to said means for formatting for storing said completely formatted textual data said second storage means having an electronic tab rack having operator set tab positions, said means for formatting further including means responsive to said second storage means for controlling tab operations operative upon the detection of a tab control code, said means for controlling including means for terminating the transmission of codes representative of textual data to said means for formatting and means responsive to said means for terminating for entering spaces sequentially into said second storage means until one of said tab positions in said electronic tab rack is detected; and means for displaying said completely formatted textual data operatively connected to said second storage means.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
62 words
The formatting system of claim 1 further wherein said second storage means is a random access memory and said system further includes means for addressing said memory, said means for addressing said memory including both a memory line register for addressing a line of textual data and a memory address register means for addressing a character within a line in said memory.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
17 words
The formatting system of claim 2 further wherein said means for entering said codes is a keyboard.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
95 words
The formatting system of claim 5 further wherein said means for formatting includes means for controlling backspacing operations including a backspace counter, means for incrementing said backspace counter by one count for each backspace code, means for decrementing said memory address register by one for each of said backspace codes; second means for decrementing including means for decrementing said backspace counter by one count following the receipt of a backspace code for each forward escaping code and second means for incrementing said memory address register by one count for each of said forward escaping codes.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
116 words
The formatting system of claim 4 further including means for controlling underscoring including means for incrementing by one count said backspace counter for each backspace code and means for decrementing said memory address register by one count for each of said backspace codes; means for reading from said memory the character in the memory location addressed by said memory registers And means for selectively setting in said characters an underscore bit upon the detection of an underscore code; means for returning each of said characters immediately to their previous memory locations; second incrementing means for incrementing said memory address register following said return, and means for repeating the above sequence for each of said underscore codes.