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(_at_)primate(_dot_)wisc(_dot_)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