VERSACOMP Language

The VERSACOMP language is a high-level, procedure-oriented programming language specifically developed for typesetting applications. It contains a powerful set of commands for performing composition, pagination, conditional testing, data conversion and manipulation, and input/output operations.

The VERSACOMP language is used to create an application program to compose a specific document or class of similar documents. The application program describes the characteristics of the input file to be composed, describes the layout of the pages to be produced, and specifies the logical rules of composition, page makeup, and input processing.

In addition to its use in performing composition tasks, the VERSACOMP language is highly useful for performing a wide variety of data processing tasks, such as building or reformatting tape or disk files, or generating formatted listings for a line printer.

Compiler Program

The VERSACOMP Compiler processes the VERSACOMP language source statements contained in an application program, and builds an object-code version of the application program that can be executed by the VERSACOMP Composer. Input to the Compiler is a disk-resident file that can be generated using any standard editor or word-processing program available to the user.

In addition to the object-code version of the program, the Compiler generates a listing of the source statements contained in the application program, along with a list of any errors detected by the Compiler.

Composer Program

The VERSACOMP Composer interprets and executes the user-specified instructions contained in an application program, and generates an output file containing composed pages in the format required by the target typesetting device.

Normally, the composition process is a one-pass process that starts at the beginning of the input file, and stops when the end of the input file is reached. A multiple-pass process would be required only if it were necessary to recompose the entire document to force the total page count to a predefined number of pages.

Up to 32 input/output files may be used during a composition run. In addition to the primary input file, auxiliary input files may be used for separately keyboarded items, such as: footnotes, tables, filler items, digitized illustrations, and job setup parameters.

Output files may be used to save various data extracted during the composition run. Such data includes items for: Table of Contents, List of Figures, List of Tables, and Indexes.

Once an application program has been completely tested, it can be added to the user's object program library from which it may be called for execution. An application program may be used repeatedly and need not be changed unless the page format changes, the logical rules of composition change, or the structure of the input file changes.

Utility Programs

Three utility programs provide for creation and maintenance of setwidth information required for composition, for creation and maintenance of kerning tables that may be desirable in some classes of composition and for changing or adding to the supplied English language hyphenation dictionary.