!
!---------------------------------------------------------!
!							  !
!     ALAN L. ZIRKLE     NAVAL SURFACE WEAPONS CENTER     !
!			 CODE K105			  !
!			 DAHLGREN, VIRGINIA  22448	  !
!							  !
!---------------------------------------------------------!
!
1 MIRACLE_MESSAGE
!
Prints specified text in large letters (capitals are 2.7 inches tall),
four rows at a time, vertically  'down the page'.  Spacing  is propor-
tional;  characters are even overlapped to equalize white space  (e.g.
the '4' in '74' is tucked  under the '7').   Vertical and Italic Roman
fonts are available.   For proper proportions, the printer must be set
to print at eight lines per inch.  Additional formats are available on
LA120 DECwriters.

 Format:

	MIRACLE  [file-spec]

2 Input
!
Each line of text input to MIRACLE produces one row of poster output.
Up to 40 rows can be produced in one run; the total number of characters
cannot exceed 1000.

Enter a CTRL/Z to terminate input when typing it in interactively.

The following characters are used as escape characters; they are not
copied to the poster output:

    #  --  Alternately turns on and off overprinting, to give a darker
           image (ignored if /DARKEN or /LXY qualifiers present).

    $  --  Switches between italic and vertical fonts.

Each input line starts out with overprinting off and in vertical font.
!
3 Character-input
!
The following characters can be used in the input text:

	o  Upper- or lower-case alphabetic characters

	o  Numeric characters

	o  The special characters  +  -  /  (  )  =  ,  .  !  ?  :  ;

	o  Blanks (rightmost blanks on a text line are ignored)

	o  Apostrophes (use ` on the left, and ' on the right)

	o  Quotation marks (use ~ on the left, and " on the right)

	o  The escape characters # and $, which are not used as text

Any other character present is treated as a blank.
!
2 Output
!
Output is designed to be printed on an LA120 DECwriter III, or on a
line printer with ten characters per inch horizontal pitch, and eight
characters per inch vertical pitch, with no skipping done over page
perforations.  The width of the forms is assumed to be 14.8 inches.

Narrower forms can be used if you enter the input text with the forms
in mind (i.e include blank lines for rows which would appear beyond the
bounds of the form).

The output text is printed in groups of four rows (on an LA120, four to
six rows).  The text is printed 'down' the page (see the sample char-
acter).  If less than a full group of rows of text is present, the rows
are vertically centered on the forms.

If the /LXY or /LA120 qualifier is present, the output file contains
embedded information to control the spacing of the target device.
!
3 Sample-character

This is how the character 'e' looks on a poster:

		     MMMMMMM
		  MMMMMMMMMMMMM
		 MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM
		 MMMM    MM  MMMM	(the proportions are probably
		MMMM     MM    MMM	 off, depending on the device
		MMM      MM    MMM	 on which  you are displaying
		MMM      MM    MMM	 this; the correct values are
		MMM      MM    MMM	 10 chars/inch  horizontally,
		 MM      MM   MMM	 and 8 lines/inch vertically)
		 MMM     MMMMMMMM
		  MMM    MMMMMMM
		   MM    MMMMM

2 Parameter

[file-spec]


  Specifies the source of the input text of the poster.  By default,
  the text is read from  SYS$INPUT.   If input is read interactively
  from a terminal, a CTRL/Z is used to terminate input.

2 Qualifiers

/CENTER [=form-size]
/NOCENTER (D)

  Controls whether the rows of text are centered with respect to each
  other, and with respect to the perforations of the printed form.

  A distance between perforations of 11.0 inches is assumed.  This may
  be overridden by specifying a new form size as a floating point
  number.

  Rightmost blanks on text lines are ignored for centering purposes;
  they may be made significant by following them with a '$' (the escape
  switch for 'italics').

/DARKEN
/NODARKEN (D)

  Controls whether overprinting ('W' printed over 'M') is used to make
  the poster printing darker.

  /DARKEN and /LXY are incompatible qualifiers.

/OUTPUT [=file-spec] (D)
/PRINT [=queue-name]

  Controls whether the poster output is queued for printing, or saved on
  a file.  the default file name (and the one used for a temporary file
  if /PRINT is specified) is MIRACLE.LIS.  The default file type is .LIS,
  and the default queue for printing is SYS$PRINT.

  Use of the /PRINT qualifier causes MIRACLE to automatically execute:

      PRINT /DELETE /NOFEED  MIRACLE.LIS  [/QUEUE=queue-name] [/COPIES=n]

  after completing the poster.  If this PRINT command gets an error (as
  when the queue name is invalid), the file MIRACLE.LIS will not get
  deleted.

  /OUTPUT and /PRINT qualifiers cannot both be specified.

/COPIES [=n]

  Used with the /PRINT qualifier to print multiple copies of a poster.
  If a value is not specified, two copies are printed.

  The /PRINT qualifier must be present if /COPIES is specified.

/LA120 [=nROWS]

  Controls whether the poster is formatted for printing on an LA120
  DECwriter III console.  On an LA120, MIRACLE can print either 4, 5, or 
  6 rows of text per group.  The height of a capital letter is 2.7, 2.1,
  1.6 inches for n=4,5,6.  If not specified, the default is '4ROWS'.

  If /LA120 is present, the beginning of the poster file contains control
  sequences to set the horizontal and vertical pitches and the vertical
  margins to the necessary values.  The end of the file contains control
  information to set these values back to (hopefully) normal values.

  Before printing a poster on an LA120, the line size must be set (by
  SET TERMINAL /WIDTH=x) to a value equal to or greater than 33*n.

  After printing a poster on an LA120, 'top-of-form' may be improperly
  set; it can be restored by pressing the LOCAL FORM FEED key and then
  turning the Paper Adjust Knob to realign the forms.

  /LA120 and /LXY qualifiers cannot both be specified.
!
/LXY (D)
/NOLXY

  Controls whether the poster is formatted for printing on a  PRINTRONIX
  printer/plotter (DEC LXY-11, LXY-21).

  IF  /LXY  is present, each print line of the poster contains a control
  character  (ASCII  ACK, octal 6)  which places the printer in  'eight-
  lines-per-inch' (8 LPI) mode without manual intervention.

  /LXY and /LA120 qualifiers cannot both be specified; /DARKEN cannot be
  present unless either /NOLXY or /LA120 is specified (since  LXY print-
  ers do not overprint).

