THE FORMAT FUNCTION

	~A or ~a	print next argument using princ
	~S or ~s	print next argument using prin1
	~D or ~d	print next argument as decimal integer
	~E or ~e	print next argument in exponential form
	~F or ~f	print next argument in fixed point form
	~G or ~g	print next argument using either ~E or ~F depending on magnitude
	~O or ~o	print next argument as octal integer
	~X or ~x	print next argument as hexidecimal integer
	~%	start a new line
	~&	start a new line if not on a new line
	~|	start a new page
	~?	use next argument as recursive format string
	~( ~)	process format string with case conversion
	~{ ~}	process format string repetitively
	~[ ~; ~]	process format string conditionally
	~*	skip arguments
	~t or ~T	go to a specified column
	~~	print a tilde character
	~\n	ignore return and following whitespace

For ~A and ~S the full form is:

	~mincol,colinc,minpad,padchar:@A	(or S)

	~15,,2,'.@A

For ~D, ~O, and ~X the full form is ("D" shown):

	~mincol,padchar@D

For ~E ~F and ~G the full form is:

	~mincol,round,padchar@E		(or F or G)

For ~%, ~|, and ~~, the full form is ~n%, ~n|, or ~n~. "n" copies (default=1) of the character are output.

For ~&, the full form is ~n&. ~0& does nothing. Otherwise enough new line characters are emited to move down to the "n"th new line (default=1).

For ~?, the next argument is taken as a format string, upon completion execution resumes in the current format string. The argument after is taken as the list of arguments used for the new format string unless the @ modifier is used, in which case the current argument list is used.

For ~(, the full form is ~(string~). The string is processed as a format string, however case conversion is performed on the output. If no modifiers are used, the string is converted to lowercase. If the colon modifier is used alone then all words are capitalized. If the @ modifier is used alone then the first character is converted to upper case and all remaining to lowercase. If both modifiers are used, all characters are converted to uppercase.

For ~{, the full form is ~n{string~}. Repeatedly processes string as a format string, or if the string is zero length, takes the next argument as the string. Iteration stops when processing has occured n times or no arguments remain. If the colon modifier is used on the ~} command, and n is non-zero then the string will be processed at least once. If no modifiers are used on ~{, then the arguments are taken from the next argument (like in ~?). If the colon modifier is used, the arguments are taken from the next argument which must be a list of sublists -- the sublists are used in turn to provide arguments on each iteration. In either case, the @ modifier will cause the current arguement list to be used rather than a single list argument.

For ~[, there are three formats. The first form is ~n[clause0~;clause1...~;clausen~]. Only one clause string is used, depending on the value of n. When n is absent, its value is taken from the argument list (as though 'v' had been used.) The last clause is treated as an "otherwise" clause if a colon modifier is used in its leading ~; command. The second form is ~:[clauset~;clausenil~]. The next argument is examined (but not consumed), and if nil clausenil is used, otherwise clauset is used. The third form is ~@[string~]. If then next argument is non-nil, then it is not used up and the format string is used, otherwise the argument is used up and the string is not used.

For ~*, the full form is ~n*. The count, n, defaults to 1 and is the number of arguments to skip. If the colon modifier is used, n is negated and skipping is backwards. The @ modifier causes n to be an absolute argument position (with default of 0), where the first argument is argument 0. Attempts to position before the first argument will position at the first argument, while attempts to position after the last argument signals an error.

For ~T, the full form is:

	~count,tabwidth@T

For ~\n, if the colon modifier is used, then the format directive is ignored (allowing embedded returns in the source for enhanced readability). If the at-sign modifier is used, then a carriage return is emitted, and following whitespace is ignored.