Convert ANSI carriage control characters to markdown/text

conver_machine_carriage_to_md.py

#!/usr/bin/env python3

import sys

# ANSI carriage control characters
#  Some MVS documents use 0/1/+/- as carriage control. This python will
#  convert them to markdown/text. The standard ANSI characters are:
#
#  - `space` Single space the line and print.
#  - `0` Double space the line and print.
#  - `-` Triple space the line and print.
#  - `+` Do not space the line and print.
#  - `1` New Page
#
# When complete you can convert to PDF with:
# pandoc klingon_manual.txt --pdf-engine=pdflatex -V geometry:top=1in -V geometry:left=1.6in -o Klingon\ Manual.pdf

if len(sys.argv) < 2:
    print("Usage: {} file.to.convert.txt".format(sys.argv[0]))
    sys.exit(1)

if len(sys.argv) > 2 and sys.argv[2].isdigit():
    start = int(sys.argv[2])
else:
    start = 1

with open(sys.argv[1],'r') as mcfile:
    for mc_line in mcfile.readlines():
        #print('DEBUG: {} "{}":{}'.format(len(mc_line), repr(mc_line[0]),repr(mc_line)))
        mc_line = mc_line.strip("\n")
        if mc_line[0] == " " or mc_line[0] == "+":
            print(mc_line[start:])
        elif mc_line[0] == "0":
            print("\n" + mc_line[start:])
        elif mc_line[0] == "-":
            print("\n\n" + mc_line[start:])
        elif mc_line[0] == "1":
            print("\pagebreak")