source of RTF specification

[Keith Moore <moore@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I don't know how authoritative this is, but I found a file named RTF-Spec.rtf via
anonymous ftp to indri.primate.wisc.edu, directory pub/RTF.  Along with that file
are some translators from RTF to other formats (basically troff and plain text), 
written by Paul DuBois <dubois@primate.wisc.edu>, who advertised their
availability on Usenet.  No author or copyright appears on the RTF-Spec.rtf file.

Even with the supplied translators, the RTF-Spec.rtf file doesn't translate well
into plain ASCII, since it makes heavy use of italics to indicate where command
parameters go.    I tried several different means of translation and finally 
gave up trying to produce a mailable version that is still readable.

Those who have ftp access, UNIX, troff, and a laser printer can grab the files
RTF-Spec.rtf and RTF-1.06a1.shar from the above mentioned directory, compile
the translator programs, use the rtf2troff translator program to generate
a troff source file, and pipe the result to tbl and troff to generate a readable
copy.

Those who have ftp access and some word processor that already understands RTF
should just grab the RTF-Spec.rtf file, feed it to your word processor, and print
it that way.  This will probably produce better output than the current version of
the UNIX-based translators.

I placed pre-formatted versions of the RTF-Spec.rtf file in the pub subdirectory
of cs.utk.edu's anonymous ftp area.  There is a PostScript version (RTF-Spec.ps),
and an ASCII-text version with embedded backspaces (RTF-Spec.txt).  Both of these
were produced by filtering the RTF-Spec.rtf file through various translators, and
the results are less than perfect, but still readable.

The RTF-Spec.rtf file also mentions a spec published in the March 1987 Microsoft
Systems Journal.


Keith