Renamed Dr Mountbatten's README

README.Sian

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+		      The Debian Package a68toc
+		      -------------------------
+
+This is the Linux port of the A68toC Algol 68 development system. It
+was extracted from the ELLA package which is used for VLSI chip
+design.
+
+The compiler front-end is essentially the Algol 68 RS portable
+compiler originally written by the Defence Research Agency when it
+was known as the RSRE (Royal Signals and Radar Establishment). Only
+that part of Algol 68 needed for the ELLA compiler was implemented by
+the `a68toc' translator with the result that formats are unavailable
+and are likely to remain unavailable for the foreseeable future. The
+`PAR' construct, for parallel programming, with the associated mode
+`SEMA' and the operators `LEVEL', `UP' and `DOWN' never were part of
+the Algol 68 RS compiler.
+
+After extracting the A68toC system from the ELLA package, it became
+clear that the library preludes provided by the ELLA team were
+entirely unsatisfactory for the general user, not least because they
+were almost completely without documentation (see ctrans.texi).
+
+It was decided to write a Standard Prelude which would conform, as
+closely as possible, to the Standard Prelude described in the `Revised
+Report on the Algorithmic Language ALGOL 68' (see the bibliography of
+the book `Programming Algol 68 Made Easy').
+
+In view of the amount of time it would take to create such a prelude,
+it was decided to adapt the Standard Prelude written for the Algol 68
+compiler marketed by Oxford and Cambridge Compilers Limited (OCCL).
+Only the transput of that prelude would need to be used, more or less
+in its entirety. (In fact, some of the numerical routines were also
+used.)
+
+The only other possibility would have been to implement the van Vliet
+Transput Model (as described in "ALGOL 68 TRANSPUT" by J.C.van Vliet.
+"Part II AN IMPLEMENTATION MODEL" gives the source code). It was felt
+that this full implementation of Algol 68 transput would require
+rather more time than the author felt she could give.
+
+In the event, the "Quick and Dirty" (QAD) implementation of the new
+Standard Prelude lasted, not three weeks as the author originally
+thought, but 7 months and the documentation thereof a further 7
+months. What with other commitments, the project has taken a full
+year to complete.
+
+The QAD Standard Prelude given here (in sub-directory qad)
+uses the conversion routines from the van Vliet Transput Model as
+well as the source code for `put' and `get' suitably adapted.
+
+The availability of the `STRAIGHT' operator in the a68toc Algol 68
+compiler meant that some of the modes in the OCCL definition of
+`SIMPLIN/SIMPLOUT' could be removed. While it is true that `STRAIGHT'
+will straighten any multiple, a quick attempt to remove all multiples
+except `STRING' was unsuccessful.
+
+The package was originally uploaded to
+    <vestein.arb-phys.uni-dortmund.de>
+as ctrans_1.0.0.tar.gz, but it was always the intention of the author
+to upload as a Debian package.
+
+This version of the translator dispenses with the module manager `mm' and,
+instead, uses `ca' to create preludes and programs.
+
+A few extra files have been added to the port:-
+
+(1) The following two files enable Algol 68 source files to be
+printed with some lexical highlighting, provided that `a2ps' is used
+(see the Debian package of that name):-
+    algol68.ssh -- a style sheet for `a2ps'
+    sheets.entry-- an entry for the file /usr/share/a2ps/sheets/sheets.map
+	 for `a2ps'
+
+Lastly, I am actively using this port and have already created the following
+preludes:-
+   regular expressions
+	Unicode regular expressions
+	string operators, sorting and the binary chop
+   system facilities:-
+      execve, fork, exec piped child, system
+      getpid et al
+      stat, fstat, lstat
+      directory scanning
+      time routines
+   Xforms library binding
+
+If any of these interest you, then do send me email.
+
+Dr Sian Mountbatten           Thu Sep 13 18:00:00 +0100 2012
+Inverness
+Scotland
+<poenikatu@fastmail.co.uk>