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11th July, 1990
About TSPRN in General
======================
This package may be used and distributed freely for NON-COMMERCIAL,
NON-INSTITUTIONAL, PRIVATE purposes, provided it is not changed in
any way. For ANY other usage, such as use in a business enterprise
or a university, contact the author for registration. Uploading to
bulletin boards is encouraged.
The programs are under development. Comments and contacts are
welcome. If you have any comments, please do not hesitate to use
electronic mail for communication.
InterNet address: ts@chyde.uwasa.fi (preferred)
Funet address: GADO::SALMI
Bitnet address: SALMI@FINFUN
FidoNet address: 2:515/1 (Micro Maniacs Opus, To: Timo Salmi)
The author shall not be liable to the user for any direct, indirect
or consequential loss arising from the use of, or inability to use,
any program or file howsoever caused. No warranty is given that the
programs will work under all circumstances.
Timo Salmi
Professor of Accounting and Business Finance
School of Business Studies, University of Vaasa
P.O. BOX 297, SF-65101 Vaasa, Finland
SUMMARY:
TSPRN15.ARC Print text files by Timo Salmi
Filename Comment Date Time
-------- -------------------------------- ---- ----
PRNDAISY.EXE Daisy Bubble parallel Jet 07-10-90 22:34:46
PRNDICO.EXE Diconix parallel ink jets 07-10-90 22:27:34
PRNG8008.EXE Gabriele 8008 serial daisy-wheel 07-10-90 22:40:04
SETDAISY.EXE Set Daisy Bubble Jet from menu 07-11-90 22:23:28
SETDICO.EXE Set Diconix InkJet from menu 07-11-90 22:23:32
TSPRN.INF Document 07-11-90 23:50:00
TSPRN.NWS News announcements about tsprn 07-11-90 22:46:42
TSPROG.INF List of PD programs from T.Salmi 04-03-90 17:37:40
VAASA.INF Info: Finland, Vaasa, U of Vaasa 02-02-90 11:52:54
---- ------ ------ -----
0009 175541 122163 31%
- 2 -
COMMON FEATURES:
The programs in this collection are for printing text files to the
following printers. Diconix parallel inkjet printers, Gabriele 8008
serial daisy-wheel printer, and Daisy Bubble parallel Jet Printer.
FILEPRNT.EXE in TSFCOM package has some additional printer options.
(See the end of this file.)
These programs (PRNDICO.EXE and PRNG8008) have been customized for
the use with a Zenith laptop, and (PRNDAISY.EXE) with an Osborne
06AT, but they can be used with other computers as well. Currently,
I use PRNDAISY.EXE with an Osborne 386.
╔═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ Zenith laptop owners using any serial printer should study ║
║ the instructions for PRNG8008.EXE below! ║
╚═════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
The programs can handle discontinuous paper. Before printing, you
are asked for the number of lines you want to print at one go. Then
there is a pause (which you can use for changing paper). A pause is
also caused by a formfeed character <FF> or the text .PAGE on any
line. (This is the same system as used by the author's FILEPAGE
program.) The line with .PAGE or linefeed on it, is not printed out.
- Printing can be aborted by pressing CTRL Y.
The text sent to the printer will be echoed on the screen.
The programs have their own error handlers to cover the most common
printer offline situations. If the offline condition arises while
the printing is taking place, it takes awhile (up to one minute)
before the handler can take over.
The FILEPAGE.EXE program referred to in the above is part of the
author's collection TSFCOMxx.ARC. The contents of TSFCOMxx.ARC is
given at the end of this file.
PRNDICO (Ver 1.2) PRiNt to DICOnix parallel ink jet
=================
PRNDICO.EXE prints text files to Diconix parallel inkjet printer.
As Diconix is a parallel printer, it must be attached to the printer
port. This program uses Diconix 150 EPSON Mode. Therefore, emulation
dip switch 6 must be set on.
FONTS:
1) Elite, Condensed
2) Elite, Condensed, Emphasized
3) Elite
4) Elite, Emphasized
5) Wide condensed
6) Wide condensed, Emphasized
7) Sample text to printer to demonstrate the fonts
Release notes for PRNDICO
∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙∙
Version 1.2: The off-line response times are now up to about 7x
shorter than in the previous versions. This is important, since
depending on your hardware the default off-line response time can be
up to one minute, which is really annoying. This is a feature of the
PC (actually its BIOS), not a feature of the printer. The new
release reduces the print retrys from the default 20 down to only 3.
The original default is restored at program termination.
BTW, if you want to be able to set the default retrys of your
printer, you can do it with my SETPRT utility, which is included in
my TSUTLD15.ARC (or later) package.
When the program asks for your input, you can now edit your input
using CursorLeft, CursorRight, Home, End, Delete, Backspace, Insert,
and Esc keys (that is you have line-editing potential). You can also
recall previous input by using the PageUp key. Furthermore, if you
press ctrl-c or Break, the program will ask for confirmation.
The file to be printed can now optionally be given on the command
line, that is the usage has been changed to PRNDICO [FileName].
The situations were the printer is turned off, or runs out of
paper in the middle of printing are now (hopefully) better handled.
PRNDAISY (Ver. 1.2) PRiNt to DAISY parallel ink jet
===================
PRNDAISY.EXE prints text files to Daisy Bubble parallel Jet Printer.
As Daisy is a parallel printer, it must be attached to the printer
port.
FONTS:
1) Condensed
2) Normal, draft
3) Normal, NLQ
4) Condensed-enlarged
5) Sample text to printer to demonstrate the fonts
6) Normal, double pass NLQ
Release notes: Version 1.2: See the release notes of PRNDICO.
PRNG8008 (Ver. 1.2) PRiNt to Gabriele 8008 serial daisy-wheel
===================
PRNG8008.EXE prints text files to Gabriele 8008 serial daisy-wheel
printer.
As Gabriele 8008 is a serial printer, it must be attached to the
RS232C port. Before using a serial printer you must first have
configured your system. See your MS-DOS and/or Owner's manual for
details. (Zenith laptop owners should look at mode and configur.com
commands.) LPT must redirected to COM. If you have not done it, do
it as follows in MsDos:
mode com1:4800,e,7,2
mode lpt1:=com1:
and print something with the print command to try it out.
You may experice difficulties in using the serial port with the
Zenith laptop with any printer. The key is to select suitable delays
with the configur.com. IMPORTANT WARNING for Zenith owners:
configur.com alters the hidden operating system files. Apply
configur.com on a separate diskette only! The parallel port may not
work properly after configuring. Knowing this may spare you
considerable strife.
Since Gabriele 8008 is a daisy-wheel printer there are no font
options. The density of the text is optional, though.
Release notes: Version 1.2: See the release notes of PRNDICO.
SETDAISY (Ver 1.3) Set Daisy Bubble Jet from menu
==================
See the description of SETDICO.
SETDICO (Ver 1.3) Set Diconix InkJet from menu
=================
I decided to try my hand at the advanced user interface with
pull-down menus and dos gateways. For this a selected a task that in
itself it simple enough, that is sending setup commands to a Diconix
parallel InkJet printer. This resulted in the setdico.exe program
now included in the TSPRN package.
The pull-down menu in this program is similar to those appearing in
many commercial programs. At the top there is the main menu (Spacing
Fonts Misc Quit). One moves around with the cursor keys (home and
end keys work as well), and makes the choice by pressing the enter
(return) key. In the main menu the first letters of the options can
also be used for moving around. In the submenus (e.g. 60, 75, 80,
90, 100, 125, 138, 150, 175, 200 for Spacing) the choices are made
in the same way. After the choice there will be a result message
about the success of setting the printer accordingly. Alt-X can be
used at any time for a quick exit. F9 can be used to escape to
MsDos, and exit to return as is customary.
Inside the program (unseen by the user) the essential trick in
building this kind of a pull-down menu program is being able quickly
to save and restore screens. (This program needs to save a maximum
of three screens.) Some minor additional tricks needed are e.g.
hiding the cursor for the duration of the program, and restoring it
when the program is ended. Of course the pulldown menus themselves
contain a lot of code, but this part involves no difficult
programming tricks, just a lot of careful juggling. Good windowing
subroutines are essential, but these I already had developed for my
earlier programs. The MsDos gateway part of the code is relatively
simple. The crucial part is locating the command processor (usually
command.com). Testing the printer status by using interrupts is also
relatively easy, but has little to do with the user interface as
such.
Release notes: Version 1.1. I have added the option of setting the
left margin in setdico.exe. From programming point of view this
meant developing a new window routine for entering data. All the
menus in version 1.0 were strictly pulldown menus involving only the
cursor keys, escape, etc., but no factual data entry.
Version 1.3: The off-line response times are now up to about 7x
shorter than in the previous versions. This is important, since
depending on your hardware the default off-line response time can be
up to one minute, which is really annoying. This is a feature of the
PC (actually its BIOS), not a feature of the printer. The new
release reduces the print retrys from the default 20 down to only 3.
The original default is restored at program termination.
The exit (F9) to Dos shell now alter the prompt by adding a [TS]
to it so that it is easier to know when you are in a shell.
INFORMATION ON TSFCOM Available e.g. by anonymous ftp from
===================== chyde.uwasa.fi, Vaasa, Finland
Searching Archive: TSFCOM23.ARC - File manipulation by Timo Salmi
Filename Comment Date Time CRC
-------- -------------------------------- ---- ---- ---
CRYPTER.EXE Protects files with a password 07-08-90 19:58:54 A68D
FILEADD.EXE Joins text files side by side 09-30-89 11:49:26 0BF7
FILECUT.EXE Cuts a text file in parts 09-29-89 11:26:50 3B00
FILEDUMP.EXE Decimal dump of a file 07-08-90 20:18:10 6758
FILEPAGE.EXE Prepares files for printing 07-08-90 20:11:34 E6BB
FILEPALN.EXE Counts page lengths and widths 07-08-90 19:46:56 4F73
FILEPRNT.EXE Text-file to various printers 07-09-90 00:16:22 82B3
FILETRAN.EXE Scandinavian conversions 09-29-89 14:44:30 E7DB
FILETRIM.EXE Trims or pads text file rows 07-08-90 20:04:06 E5B3
TSFCOM.INF Document 07-09-90 00:35:38 A1FF
TSFCOM.NWS News concerning this package 07-09-90 00:32:06 E39F
TSPROG.INF List of PD programs from T.Salmi 04-03-90 17:37:40 38AB
VAASA.INF Info: Finland, Vaasa, U of Vaasa 02-02-90 11:52:54 F6C0
---- ------ ------ -----
0013 304659 216367 29%