CBFMT - A Style file for Producing Machine Readable Users' Guides

• NCJ Number: 68008
• Date Published: September 1979
• Publication Type: Publication

Annotation

This report describes a format style file for producing users' guides for machine-readable data sets and demonstrates all of the macros and functions used to produce users' guides for machine-readable data sets.

Abstract

It describes the system used to create machine-readable users' guides from OSIRIS III or OSIRIS IV machine-readable dictionaries. The system uses a special purpose program to merge dictionary information from OSIRIS into a format input file. Two libraries of format macros and functions are then used to expand the dictionary and labeling information into a printed users' guide. Although the system has been designed around the format document processing language, it is directly applicable to any document processing language with a macro facility. By suitable redefining of format macros, the same file can serve as a machine-readable codebook, a paper questionnaire, a driver for a computer assisted telephone interviewing program, and an input file to an information retrieval system. An example of a machine-readable users' guide, in conformance with the style outlined in 'a style manual for machine-readable data and their documentation' and containing examples of the use of all macros and functions in CBFMT, is appended. Footnotes are provided. (Author Abstract Modified)