SORTTX.TXT - Description of the sort filters SORTTEXT, SORTPARA and REVERSE

  Title   : SORTTX
  Realease: 03
  Date    : Feb 13,2000
  Author  : J.R. Ferguson, AMsterdam, The Netherlands
  Download: http://hello.to/ferguson
            To compile the sourcefiles you will need units from the Pascal
            library JRFPAS that can be found on the same Internet site.
  E-mail  : j.r.ferguson @ iname.com

The programs described here, together with this descriptive text, may be  used
and  copied  freely  without charge, but only for non-commercial purposes. The
author is not responsible for any damage or loss of data that may be caused by
the use of this software.

Files:
SORTTX   TXT   This text
SORTTEXT EXE   Sort text lines
SORTTEXT PAS   Pascal source for SORTTEXT.EXE
SORTPARA EXE   Sort text paragraphs
SORTPARA PAS   Pascal source for SORTPARA.EXE
REVERSE  EXE   Reverse text line order
REVERSE  PAS   Pascal source for REVERSE.EXE

These files are packed together in SORTTXnn.ZIP, where nn is a release number.

The  three  EXE files are MS-DOS filter programs that sort or reverse the line
order in a text file or stream.
They may be used as standalone commands, like in:
  SORTTEXT <FOO.DAT >FOO.SRT
or as a true filter in a pipeline DOS command, like in:
  DIR |SORTTEXT |MORE

All three programs use an internal memory buffer to sort  the  text,  so  they
don't  work  with  very large files. Both SORTTEXT and SORTPARA have an option
for "Lexical order", not often found in other sort programs.

The lexical order has four ASCII character groups:
 1. Control characters (codes 0 - 31 decimal)
 2. Punctuation (' ', '!', '*', '\', '|', etc.)
 3. Digits ('0' - '9')
 4. Letters (uppercase and lowercase considered equal)
When comparing two characters from different groups, the group number  decides
the  order.  When  comparing  characters  that belong to the same group, their
ASCII codes decide the order. In group 4 (letters) however, no distinction  is
made between uppercase and lowercase letters.

In  the  command  descriptions  below,  brackets [ and ] are used for optional
parts of the command. They should not be typed as a part of the  command.  The
default  value  is  given  between the same pair of brackets in the decriptive
text on the right. For all three commands, the defaults for <in and  >out  are
the DOS standard input (keyboard) and standard output (screen) devices.


SORTTEXT - Sort lines in textfile.
Usage  : SORTTEXT [<in] [>out] [/option[...] [...]]
Options:
    K[c1][,c2]  Define key first col c1 [1], last col c2 [255].
 or K[c1][,+c2]            first col c1 [1], nr of cols c2 [255].
    D  Sort in descending order.
    I  Ignore upper/lower case. Implied by /L.
    L  Sort in Lexical order (control,punctuation,digits,letters). Implies /I.
    H  Send this help text to (redirected) output.


SORTPARA - Sort text paragaphs (blocks of text lines separated by one or more
blank lines). Output paragraphs are separated by one blank line. 
Max line length is 255.

Usage  : SORTPARA [<in] [>out] [/option[...] [...]]
Options:
  K[lineref][;colref]           Define Key line(s)/column(s).
     with lineref = [l1][,l2]   First line l1 [1], last line   l2 [l1].
                 or [l1][,+l2]  First line l1 [1], nr of lines l2 [1].
          colref  = [c1][,c2]   First col  c1 [1], last col    c2 [255].
                 or [c1][,+c2]  First col  c1 [1], nr of cols  c2 [255].
  D  Sort in descending order.
  I  Ignore upper/lower case. Implied by /L.
  L  Sort in lexical order (control,punctuation,digits,letters). Implies /I.
  H  Send this help text to (redirected) output.


REVERSE - Reverse text line order
Usage  : REVERSE [<in] [>out] [/option[...] [...]]
Options: Ln  Keep groups of n lines together (n=1..32767, default 1)
         H   Send this help text to (redirected) output.
Remarks: All lines must fit in memory together.