aft - "free form" document preparation system

aft [--verbose] [--autonumber] [--output=file | --output=-] [--type=output-type] infile ..

AFT is a nearly free format documentation system which can be typed in using any editor or wordprocessor that supports tabs or hard spaces (column-based spaces whose number doesn't shrink or grow based on formatting). By using AFT, you are no longer constrained to one wordprocessing file standard (such as Microsoft Word), nor do you have to enter a plethora of weird syntactical incantations of an embedded mark up language (such as LaTeX or HTML).

Unlike other mark up languages, AFT is designed to parse and recognize patterns rather than formal commands. That is why there is no single escape or command sequence that tells AFT what to do. In this regard, AFT will process almost anything you throw at it.

An AFT document is easily converted into such popular formats as HTML, RTF and LaTeX. Because there are few commands, learning to write a document in AFT requires little effort. This doesn't mean that AFT is not powerful. In fact, this very document was conceived and written using AFT.

Running AFT is as simple as typing:

aft NAME_OF_YOUR_FILE.aft

--verbose

Generate a lot of commentary. By default, AFT will just silently process files (unless errors occur). Using this option causes AFT to keep you informed about what it is doing.

--autonumber

This switch tells AFT to automatically number your sections.--output=file |

--output=-

This tells AFT where to send its processed output. You can supply a filename (file) or - which tells AFT to write to your standard output (your display or stdout).

--type=output_type

This tells AFT what type of output to do. For example HTML output is used for html and DocBook output is used for docbook. As a side effect, this will also specify the file name extension for the output file if the --output option isn't specified.

infile ..

One or more AFT documents to be processed.

This manual page was written for the Debian GNU/Linux system by Robert Lemmen <robertle@semistable.com> (but may be used by others, of course)