richtext(1)
NAME
richtext - View a richtext document, typically a mail mes-
sage
SYNOPSIS
richtext [ -c ] [ -f ] [ -m ] [ -n ] [ -o ] [ -p ] [ -s
charset ] [ -t ] [ file ]
DESCRIPTION
The richtext program allows users to view "richtext" files
on an ASCII terminal. It uses termcap(5) capabilities to
highlight text that is supposed to be bold or italic, and
to underline text that is supposed to be underlined. It
also implements most of the richtext commands that have to
do with indentation and justification, as well as the
"excerpt" and "signature" commands.
Richtext is a very simple markup language for sending rich
text through the mail. It is not to be confused with
Microsoft's RTF (Rich Text Format). It is part of the
MIME standard for multimedia Internet mail.
The richtext program takes raw richtext output on its
standard input or from a file and produces formatted out-
put on its standard output, which is assumed to be a ter-
minal. It is intended primarily for use by the meta-
mail(1) program.
The program will also repair the raw input to match up any
richtext command pairs that are out of order.
OPTIONS
When invoked with no options, richtext expects raw rich-
text on its standard input, which is corrected, and then
formatted output is written on its standard output. The
following options can alter that behaviour:
-a This option, which is only available under DOS,
toggles whether or not to use ANSI mode for high-
lighting bold, italic, or underlined text.
-c This option directs richtext to just correct the
raw richtext and write the corrected version to
its standard output, without performing any for-
matting.
-f This option directs richtext to use termcap-
derived escape codes for bold and italic text,
even if richtext is called in a pipe.
-m This option directs richtext to interpret '<' in
multi-byte Japanese and Korean sequences as a real
less-than symbol and not the start of a richtext
command. This is called the ''multi-byte '<'
hack'' in the source code. Primarily this is for
international variants of richtext.
-n This option directs richtext to not do any correc-
tion to the raw richtext it receives.
-o This option directs richtext to use overstriking
for underlining, etc., on terminals where this is
the most appropriate behavior.
-p This enables the use of a pager which reports
"Press RETURN to go on" after each screen-full of
data. Alternatively, if the environment variable
MM_USEPAGER is present, then the pager will also
be used. This option and the environment variable
have no effect if either standard input or stan-
dard output is redirected.
-s charset
This option directs richtext to use the specified
default character set initially when processing
the text. Legal values are us-ascii, iso-2022-jp
and iso-2022-kr. Any other value will default to
us-ascii.
-t This option directs richtext NOT to use termcap-
derived escape codes for bold and italic text,
even if richtext is called in a terminal.
Instead, "*" and "_" will be used to highlight the
affected text.
X11 Resources
If you're using the xterm program, you can control what
font is used for bold text using the "xterm*boldFont"
resource.
SEE ALSO
metamail(1) mailto(1) termcap(5)
BUGS
This is a very quick hack, really -- an attempt to provide
minimal richtext support for an ASCII terminal. The
author makes no pretense of having gotten every single
case right.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 1991 Bell Communications Research, Inc.
(Bellcore)
Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this mate-
rial for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted,
provided that the above copyright notice and this permis-
sion notice appear in all copies, and that the name of
Bellcore not be used in advertising or publicity
pertaining to this material without the specific, prior
written permission of an authorized representative of
Bellcore. BELLCORE MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE
ACCURACY OR SUITABILITY OF THIS MATERIAL FOR ANY PURPOSE.
IT IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED
WARRANTIES.
AUTHORS
Nathaniel S. Borenstein
Richtext correction algorithm and international language
support by Rhys Weatherley rhys@cs.uq.oz.au.