ftp.update.uu.se/ftp.update.uu.se.2014.03.zip/ftp.update.uu.se/pub/rainbow/msdos/latrobe/f/fancyexe.arc/FPRINT.DOC

Text File | 1985-10-11 | 17KB | 389 lines

              FPRINT Font Printer

                 Version 2.02
               J Anthony Movshon
               February 23, 1985


   FPRINT formats text for output to an LA50 or LA100 with the    extended
logic option.  The input text can come either from a file or be typed in
by hand.  FPRINT uses fonts generated by the FEDIT program, and  outputs
the  graphic  sequences to draw those characters on the printer.  FPRINT
also knows how to do text justification,  centering,  paging  and  other
document-formatting  operations.    FPRINT is based on a CP/M program of
the same name by A. Christopher Hall;  the present version  is    for  MS-
DOS, version 2 or later.


RUNNING FPRINT

   There are several ways to run fprint; the general syntax is

    fprint [ -p ] [ -o outfile ] [ infile ]

Simplest is to invoke the program by typing "fprint".  You  will  get  a
">"  prompt.    The  first thing you must do is read in one or more font
files (described with the directives below).  Then you can type lines of
text or issue directives to change the formatting, control the printing,
or include text from a file.  When you are done, type a line  containing
only  a  single ".".  FPRINT will ask if you want the output sent to the
printer immediately; answer "Y" or "N".  In either case, the output will
be  in the default file FPRINT.TXT, which can subsequently be printed in
the usual way.    It takes quite a  while  to  print  the  file  --  every
character of your text needs 20 to 100 ASCII characters to draw it -- so
some kind of print spooler is an advantage, as is running  your  printer
at the highest permissible BAUD rate.

   If you specify an input file on the command    line,  FPRINT  will  not
prompt    for  keyboard  input  but  will immediately read and process the
file, diplaying the input text as it proceeds.    When done,  FPRINT  will
immediately  ask if you want the file printed.    Note that the input file
must contain the directive to read the    font  file  (as  well  as  other
directives),  since  you  don't get a chance to type that information in
yourself.

     The  command  line  options  "-p"    and  "-o  outfile"  control  the
destination of FPRINT's output.  If you use the -p flag, FPRINT will not
create an output file but  will  print    the  formatted    text  as  it  is
processed.  This option is useful when disk space is at a premium, since
FPRINT's output files can run to tens of thousands  of    bytes  even  for
rather    short  documents.   The disadvantage of this method is that when
you are typing input from the keyboard, you  must  wait  for  FPRINT  to
process  and  print  each  line  before  proceeding;  if your printer is
running at less than 4800 BAUD, this can become tedious.   The    -o  flag
allows    you  to  direct FPRINT's output to another file than the default
"fprint.txt".


FONTS

   A number of fonts are supplied with the FPRINT/FEDIT package.    They
come  in  three  sizes:    12,    18, and 24 printer-dots ("points") high.
FPRINT's points (1/72 inch) are actually a little smaller  than  a  true
point.     The supplied fonts are described below.  It's easy to make more
(especially if you can hack one of these fonts) using  the  font  editor
FEDIT.    You can make larger or smaller fonts, as long as the height is a
multiple of 6.    However, 6 points  is  pretty  tiny,  and  FEDIT  cannot
presently edit a font larger than 24 points.  By convention, the name of
the font file is the font style followed by one of the    sizes,    such  as
ASCII12 or GOTHB24.  The font file type is .FNT.

    Font    Size(s)  Description

        ASCII   12       Plain characters (too small to be fancy)
    ROMAN    18, 24     Serifs. Book-like type.
    ITALIC    18, 24     Serifs and slanted forward.
    GOTH    18, 24     Gothic: Sans-serif. Block characters.
    GOTHB    18, 24     Gothic Bold: Sans-serif; thicker than GOTH.
    COPR    18, 24     Copperplate Gothic. Very small serifs.
    CIRCUS    24     Gothic, thick at top and bottom; like a circus
                sign or an old western wanted poster.
    OLDENG    18     Old English Gothic lettering.
    FEANOR    12, 18     Middle-Earth Elvenscript from "The Lord of the
                Rings".
    PUNC    18, 24     Incomplete plain punctuation and number font.

While you could (with difficulty) construct a "monospaced" font in which
all characters had the same width, the supplied fonts are proportionally
spaced.  This means that the only way to ensure that material printed on
different  lines  will    line up correctly is to use tabs to position the
carriage; using the conventional method based on character  counts  will
not work.


DIRECTIVES

   Directives tell FPRINT to read  font  files    or  text  files,  change
fonts,    set  formatting  parameters  like line and character spacing, or
tabs, and change formatting techniques like justification and centering.
All  directives  begin    with  "." and must be preceded and followed by a
space or a CRLF.  In order to prevent a word beginning with a  "."  from
being  interpreted  as a directive, it must be prefixed with the literal
escape character "\".  Most directives can appear anywhere  between  two
words on the line, mingled with text or other directives.

   In the descriptions below, "n" means a decimal number and  "c"  is  a
character.    These  and  filename  arguments  must follow the directive
without intervening white space.  Three types of spacing measure are
used by the various directives:

 o A "space" is a character from some font.  It's used, for example,  to
   separate words or to set paragraph indentations.

 o A "microspace" is the room occupied by a single dot typed by one wire
   of  the printer; there are 144 microspaces to the hiorozontal inch of
   print.

 o A "line" is the height of a single graphic  line,  which  contains  6
   rows  of print dots.  There are 12 graphic lines to the vertical inch
   of print.

Directives which are in effect at startup are marked "Default".

.An
      Make font n (1 <= n <= 5) current:  text will be output using that
      font  until  another  .A    directive is encountered.  See also .Fn.
      Making a font current changes the values    of  character  and  line
      spacing to the defaults or modified values for that font.

.B
      Output a blank line when a  blank  line  is  typed.    This  seems
      obvious, but see .NB.  Default.

.C
      Center the next line within the current width, not considering any
      left margin that may be specified.  .C works for only one line, so
      you have to type ".C" before every line you want centered.

.Fnname
      Read the font file "name.fnt" into font n.  Some font must be read
      in  before  any  text  is  processed.    FPRINT  can  hold up to 5
      different fonts at a time.  You may read fonts at  any  time;  the
      old  font  n,  if  there    is one, will be replaced by the new one.
      Note that reading a font does not make  it  current;  the  current
      font is specified with the .An and .NA commands.

.JHc
      Set the Justify Header Character to "c".  If  you  are  justifying
      (either  fill  or  no-fill)  and have a non-zero left margin, then
      when FPRINT wants to output a new paragraph it will put "c" at the
      margin  of  the  first  line.    This  would  be  used to indent a
      paragraph and start it with a "bullet".  If "c" is the letter  "N"
      then  the paragraphs will be numbered consecutively, starting with
      1.  The  number  and  a  period  will  be  output  at  the  margin
      (Restriction:  FPRINT only understands single digits now, so don't
      use this with more than 9 paragraphs).  To cancel the Header,  use
      .NH.

.JU
      Justify within the given width and left margin.  The right  margin
      is  left ragged.    Type a blank line to end a paragraph.  .NJ stops
      the justifying.  See  also  paragraph  indent  (.Pn),  blank  line
      outputting  (.B  and  .NB),  left margin (.Mn), and Justify Header
      (.JHc). [This notation is confusing: what is meant by "justify" is
      in fact "fill but do not justify", like .F;.NJ in RUNOFF].

.JF
      Justify filled within the given width.  Same  as  .JU  except  the
      right margin is made straight.

.Ln
      Set the number of blank lines output after a  line  of  text.    A
      blank line is six micro-dots high (so in general it's much smaller
      than the height of the text).  The default value is  carried  with
      each font, and varies.  The usual value is 1.  0 is illegal.  Once
      set by .L, the default value for the current font is  changed,  so
      if it is later reselected, the value set by .L is restored.

.Mn
      Set the left margin for justified  text.      N  is  the  number  of
      microspaces  which  precedes  each  line.  Default:  0.  Note that
      previous versions of FPRINT set this margin not in microspaces but
      in spaces of the current font. The default value is 144 (1 in).

.NA
      Set no alternate font.  This is the same as .F1.

.NB
      When justifying, suppress the output of a blank line when a  blank
      line  is  typed.  A blank line ends the current paragraph, however
      it's not always desirable to have the blank  line  appear  in  the
      output.

.NH
      Clear the Justify Header Character.  See .JHc.

.NJ
      Stop justifying.  Text will be output line by line as it is  typed
      in.  Default.

.NTS
      Clear all tab settings.  See .NTn, .TSn, .TN and .TB.  Default.

.NTn
      Clear the tab which has been set at microspace position  n.    See
      .NTS, .TSn, .TN and .TB.

.Pn
      Set paragraph indent for justify.  N is the number  of  spaces  to
      indent.

.PG
      Force a page break and continue output on a new page.

.PLn
      Set the length of the print area of  the    page  to  be  n  graphic
      lines in length. The default is 108 (9 in).

.PMn
      Set the top margin (the number of blank graphic lines at    the  top
      of each new page) to n. The default value is 9 (3/4 in).

.PTn
      Test that at least n graphic lines remain on the current page;  if
      not, force a page break and continue output on a new page.

.Rfile.nam
      Read the file "file.nam" and process directives and text from  it;
      then return for user input.

.Sn
      Set the letter spacing.  This is the number of microspaces  output
      between  characters.    A  wider    value  gives  "extended" text; a
      narrower one makes the text look "condensed".  The  default  value
      is carried with each font, and varies.  This directive changes the
      default value for the current font only:    changing  fonts  selects
      the default or altered value for the new font.

.TB
      Move to the next tab setting.  This will also be    done  if  a  tab
      character  (control-I,  octal  11)  is found in the text.  The tab
      settings must previously have been set up using .TI, .TN    or  .TSn
      commands.    Tabs  encountered when no tab-stops have been set are
      treated as spaces.

.TIn
      Set tabstops  from  the  present    left  margin  at  the  increment
      specified (in microspaces) by n.

.TN
      Set "normal" tabstops,  every  72  microspaces  (i.e.  every  half
      inch), up to 1440 (10 inches).

.TSn
      Set a tab at the microspace position n.  Note  that  tab    settings
      are made with reference to the present left margin (set with .M).

.Wn
      Set line width to be n microspaces, 144 microspaces to  the  inch.
      A  value    of  1152  fills  an  8    inch print line completely.  The
      maximum value of n is 2260, corresponding to a 15 inch line.   The
      value specified by .W includes and is not added to the left margin
      value specified with .M; thus changes in    .M  do    not  change  the
      right  margin.    The default value is 1008, giving a 7-inch print
      line, of which the first inch is blank margin.


LITERAL ESCAPES

    In order to prevent a word beginning with "." from being interpreted
as  a directive, you must prefix the "." with a "\"m which functions (in
the Unix style) as a literal escape character.    In order to print a "\",
you must enter "\\".


PAGE MARGINS

    The  following  diagram  shows  FPRINT's  default  margins    and  the
directives used to change them.

    ---------------------------------------------------------
    |                ^                |
    |                |      Default is 3/4"    |
    |               Top Margin            |
    |                |      Set with .PM        |
    |                v                |
    |                ^                |
    |                |                |
    |  Left             |                |
    |<------>            |      Default is 9"     |
    | Margin           Page Length            |
    | Default is 1"         |      Set with .PL        |
    | Set with .M            .                |
        |                                                       |
        |                         Line                          |
    |<------------------------------------------------>    |
    |              Width             |
    |           Default is 7", set with .W        |
        |                                                       |
    |                .                |
    |                |                |
    |                v                |
    |                            |
    |                            |
    ---------------------------------------------------------

Although the nominal left and right margins are 1 and 1 1/2 in on 8  1/2
by  11 in paper, on 9 1/2 by 11 in fanfold paper in an LA50, they become
symmetrical and roughly 1 1/4 in.  Similarly, the asymmetry between  the
top  (3/4  in)    and bottom (1 1/4 in) margin is usually rectified by the
fact that the top of the page is a little higher than the printhead when
paper is loaded.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

   FPRINT will run on a DEC Rainbow or    other  MSDOS  personal    computer
with  minimal ANSI screen support; it requires a DEC LA34, LA50 or LA100
printer with graphics option.  The companion font editor FEDIT    requires
a VT100 or compatible screen and is configured for the Rainbow keyboard.
The source code should be reasonably easily ported  to    other  kinds  of
computer  (the    original  version  was written in BDS C for CP/M-80; the
present version is in Microsoft/Lattice C).

   In a minimal MSDOS 2.05 or 2.11 system with    128  kbytes  of  memory,
FPRINT    has  enough  free  memory to accommodate any five fonts.  If the
amount of free memory (revealed by CHKDSK) is for  some  reason  smaller
than  about  70000  bytes, it may be impossible to accommodate all fonts
simultaneously and a ".f" directive will elicit an error message  saying
there  is  no more room for another font.  When that happens, everything
is O.K., except that the latest font has not been read.  If  you  really
want  that  font,  you    have  to  get  rid of one of the other fonts (by
reading the new font over it).


BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

   The paging routine does not presently number pages.      This    will  be
fixed in version 2.1.

   Multiple pages  cannot  presently  be  printed  easily  using  single
sheets,  since    no  mechanism exists to pause to allow a new sheet to be
loaded.  This will be fixed in version 2.1.  It would be relatively easy
to write a program to print FPRINT files in this controlled manner.

   The last page break of a file leaves the paper positioned  improperly
for the beginning of the next file.

   Justification does not always complete properly if a blank line  does
not precede or follow the .NJ command.

   The Justify Header Character is always printed at the  left    edge  of
the paper; it should be possible to specify this margin separately.

   If your  printer  auto-wraps,  printing  lines  that  go  beyond  the
printer's right margin creates an irretrievable mess on the page.

   While many serious bugs have  been  removed    from  the  justification
routines,  these  are sufficiently convoluted that is perfectly possible
that some remain.  For example, words too long to  fit    on  a  justified
line are not properly handled and cause the program to crash.

   FPRINT attempts be sensible about accepting strange parameter values
from directives, but it is probably possible to demolish the program by
feeding it enough weird numbers.

   Characters beyond the 80th column of  an  input  file  are  discarded
without warning.

   No error checking is done to ensure that the  specified  output  file
can  in  fact  accommodate  all  the  data; print files can be truncated
without warning if you run out of disk space.  This problem does not, of
course, occur if the -p option is used.

   Please report any bugs you may find or suggestions  for  improvements
to  the  author  by  one  or more of the following routes.  I would also
appreciate receiving copies of any new fonts you may create.

    J. Anthony Movshon

    US mail:    100 Bleecker Street
            New York, NY 10012

    ARPAnet mail:    hipl!tony@nyu-cmcl2

    UUCP mail:    {seismo|allegra|ihnp4}!cmcl2!hipl!tony

    Or leave a message for me (as "Tony Movshon")  on  the    DEC-WARE
    Fido BBS (212 535-8924).