═══ 1. Licence Agreement and Disclaimer ═══ This product is a shareware distribution of property solely owned by C Prompt. (C) Copyright 1995, all right reserved. PrintIt can be openly distributed by anyone. Commercial resale is strictly prohibited without licence agreement from C Prompt. The user of this product can make as many copies for friends as they wish with one condition; all files in the original zip package must be included. C PROMPT DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF FITNESS AND MERCHANTABILITY WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT. BY FURNISHING THIS SOFTWARE AND DOCUMENT, C PROMPT GRANTS NO LICENSES TO ANY RELATED PATENTS OR COPYRIGHTS. ═══ 2. Basic Description of PrintIt ═══ PrintIt is your basic ascii text printing program. The main users of this product are programmers. It is designed to print listings (something few of us programmers do anymore, but when you have to... its nice to have good printing tool). ═══ 3. Command line and running PrintIt ═══ PrintIt is design to be run from either the command line or interactively. Most of the information that is entered into dialogs can also be entered via the command line. For a detailed description of the command line options see the following reference section Command Line options. ═══ 3.1. Command Line options ═══ Sytax PRINTIT <-OPTIONS> All command line parameters are optional (including file names). All parameters can be entered using the programs dialog boxes. Once configuration information is entered in the dialog box (or by the command line) it will be saved as the new defaults. This does not apply to file names which must be entered fresh for each print job. EXAMPLES PRINTIT file1.h file2.c file3.txt PRINTIT *.h *.c PRINTIT -h -n -e file1.h ┌─────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬──────────┐ │Param│Description │Default │ ├─────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┤ │-E │Emulation of graphics characters. Converts unprintable │Disabled │ │ │characters into "equivalent" printable characters. │ │ ├─────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┤ │-T │Sets tab length to the specified amount. No white space│8 │ │ │between the "-T" and the length. │ │ ├─────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┤ │-N │Enable line numbering in the left hand column. │Disabled │ ├─────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┤ │-H │Enable header printing on the top of each page. │Disabled │ ├─────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┤ │-L │Specify the printer port. Numeric value: 1, 2, 3, etc. │LPT1 │ │ │For example -L2 sets the printer to LPT2. │ │ ├─────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┤ │-F │Send output to a file instead of the printer. File name│Disabled │ │ │is specified immediately after "-F" i.e. -Fprint.txt │ │ ├─────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┤ │-P │Enable immediate printing. The program does not wait │Disabled │ │ │for the print command to be entered before printing │ │ │ │beings. All values must be have been previous set or │ │ │ │entered on the command line. This command is for script│ │ │ │file processing. Once all files are printed the program│ │ │ │will terminate. │ │ ├─────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼──────────┤ │-A │Enables the generation of audit files. These files are │Disabled │ │ │used for either keeping a perminent record of work done│ │ │ │by this program or for debugging. │ │ └─────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴──────────┘ ═══ 4. How Do I? ═══ This is a list of answers to frequently asked question. ┌────────────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────┐ │Question │Answer │ ├────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤ │How do I remove a file from the list of │You cannot remove a file from the list, │ │files to print? │but you can prevent it from being │ │ │printed by clicking on (deselecting) it │ │ │in the list. │ ├────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┤ │How do I add files to the print list? │Files can be added to the list using │ │ │either the menu with its │ │ │selection dialog, or by specifying the │ │ │file names (wild cards okay) on the │ │ │command line. │ └────────────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────┘ ═══ 5. Installation ═══ Installation is simple. Just copy the printit files to a directory that has the PATH, DPATH, and HELP environment variables set to it. 1. The PATH variable is optional (but useful). 2. The DPATH variable is used to locate the printit.cfg file. 3. The HELP variable is used to locate the printit.inf file. 4. Set the printit environment variable PRINTITFILES=X:\mydir to the location where you would like the program to store its ini file. If this variable is not present THEN printit will save the ini file to the current working directory. This can be useful since it will allow for different setups for each working location on your system. 5. Create an icon by dragging a program templete from the OS/2 Templete folder. Fill in the name of the program (printit.exe) and the working directory (where you installed printit). ═══ 5.1. Printer Configuration File ═══ The file printit.cfg contains information that defines how this program talks with the printer. It can be modified to allow this program to work with other printers than HP or it can be customized for a particular look. Rules. 1. The Character string that follows an embedded value cannot also be contained within an embedded value. ═══ 5.2. PrintIt Files ═══ ┌────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────┬────────────────────┐ │File Name │Description │Path Location │ ├────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤ │printit.exe │The executable program file. │run time directory. │ ├────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤ │printit.ini │File contains user entered information │run time directory │ │ │and operating data. This file is │or a location │ │ │automatically created if it does not │specified with the │ │ │exit. │printit environment │ │ │ │variable. │ ├────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤ │printit.cfg │File contains printer command code │run time directory. │ │ │definitions. │ │ ├────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤ │printit.inf │This help file. │run time directory. │ ├────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤ │main.log │Audit file of main program thread. │run time directory. │ ├────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤ │print.log │Audit file of program print job thread. │run time directory. │ ├────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤ │fileload.log│Audit file of program file loading │run time directory. │ │ │thread. │ │ └────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────┴────────────────────┘ ═══ 6. Dialogs, buttons, and Controls ═══ Available Information:  Main Screen information.  Configuration information.  Menu Bar information. ═══ 6.1. Main Window ═══ The main window contains:  A Start/Stop printing button  A file list box  A scrolling information window  A status line ═══ 6.1.1. Start/Stop Print Button ═══ This is a large button on the upper left corner of the main window. This button is used to both start and stop a print job. The button toggles between start and stop functions with each click of the mouse. ═══ 6.1.2. File to print list box ═══ This is a list box that fills most of the left of the main window. This list box contains the file that are to be printed (or have already been printed). Files can be added to this list by using the Select Files to print option from the File menu. Files can also be added on the command line used to invoke printit. Only the files in this list that are selected will be printed. You can unselect a file by clicking on it. This is a way of preventing files that were inadvertently added to the list from being printed. As files are printed they are not removed from the list, but are deselected. These files can again be printed by selecteding each file with your pointing device. ═══ 6.1.3. Scrolling Information Window ═══ This is a list box that fills most of the right of the main window. This window contains a "set of information" for each file printed. The set information includes: 1. The name of the file that was printed 2. The lines and columns per page settings. 3. The tab setting 4. The state of the line numbering option. 5. The state of the Page header option. 6. Printer port being used. 7. The state of the "print to file" option. 8. The output file created with print formated ascii. 9. The number of lines successfully printed. ═══ 6.1.4. Status Line ═══ This is a small horizontal window that extends across the bottom of the main window. The status line displays information about a specific activity that is currently occurring (such as current line number of file being printed). ═══ 6.2. Configuration ═══ The configuration dialog gives you direct control over printer parameters. You can set the character pitch, lines spacing etc. These values can be fine tuned to produce output that is as compact and legible as possible. All configurations are saved to an ini file. This file is loaded on startup. Any changes made through the Configuration dialog will remain in effect until over ridden by command line options or the dialog is changed. Configuration parameters:  Fixed Character Spacing check box  Page Header Check Box  Line number check box  Output to file check box  Character pitch entry field  Lines per inch entry field  Page Orientation Spin button  Emulate Graphics Check box  Printer port spin button  Tabs entry field  Point size entry field  Type Face entry field  Output file name entry field  Header comment entry field  Lines per page entry field  Columns per line entry field  Reset to default push button  Font weight entry field ═══ 6.2.1. Fixed Character Spacing check box ═══ For printing Source Code Listings and other column oriented documents this option should be enabled. Enabling this option will cause the printer to use fixed spacing fonts only. This will disable proportional font selection. Since most fonts are proportional enabling this option will reduce your font options dramatically. ═══ 6.2.2. Page Header Check Box ═══ Check this box to enable printing of the page header. The page header is a single line printed at the top of the page containing the filename, date, and time; plus an optional comment. ═══ 6.2.3. Line number check box ═══ Check this box to enable line numbering. ═══ 6.2.4. Output to file check box ═══ Check this box to enable sending the formated output of a print-job to a file instead of the printer. All files printed will be amended to the specified output file. This output file will continue to grow until deleted manually. ═══ 6.2.5. Character pitch entry field ═══ This entry specified the character pitch to setup in the printer. The value is characters per inch. A typical value might be 16 cpi. ═══ 6.2.6. Lines per inch entry field ═══ This entry specifies the number of lines that will be printed per vertical inch of paper. ═══ 6.2.7. Page Orientation Spin button ═══ This spin button is used to set the page orientation to portrait or landscape. Landscape is printing vertically across the longer of the two dimensions of the paper. Portrait is printing in a standard orientation. ═══ 6.2.8. Emulate Graphics Check box ═══ Enabling this option will map certain line drawings characters into the standard ascii set of printable characters. EXAMPLES  is mapped to ! █ is mapped to # ┼ is mapped to + ║ is mapped to | ═══ 6.2.9. Printer port spin button ═══ This spin button is used to set the printer port that output will be sent to. ═══ 6.2.10. Tabs entry field ═══ This entry field is used to specify the number of spaces to be used for formatting the output. ═══ 6.2.11. Point size entry field ═══ This entry field is used to specify the point size for the font. ═══ 6.2.12. Type Face entry field ═══ This entry field is used to select the printer type face (not font). ═══ 6.2.13. Output file name entry field ═══ Enter the name of the file to send the formatted output of this program. ═══ 6.2.14. Header comment entry field ═══ Enter text that is to be printed as a comment in the header on the top of each page (i.e. document title, reference code, etc.). ═══ 6.2.15. Lines per page entry field ═══ Enter the number of lines to print per page. If this is set to more than the number that can be printed on a single sheet of paper the printer will feed out the first page prematurely. This will result in pages not being properly filled with lines of text. ═══ 6.2.16. Columns per line entry field ═══ Enter the number of columns per line of text. If the line is longer that this value it will be truncated. ═══ 6.2.17. Reset to default push button ═══ This command will reset the configuration to printit default values. ═══ 6.2.18. Font weight entry field ═══ The entry field is used to specify the weight (the boldness) of each character. ═══ 6.3. Menu bar ═══  Files Menu.  Configuration Menu.  Help Menu. ═══ 6.3.1. File Menu ═══ This menu item opens a file dialog that can be used to select files for printing. Items selected using this dialog are added to the files to print list. ═══ 6.3.2. Configuration Menu ═══ See Configuration Section. for information. ═══ 6.3.3. Help Menu ═══ The menu opens this file or the program information box (which contains the revision number for this software release). ═══ 7. What's new in PrintIt V1.11? ═══ Available Information:  List of new features  List of planned enhancements ═══ 7.1. List of new features ═══ This is the 1st release of printit. ═══ 7.2. List of planned enhancements ═══ Planned enhancements for the next release:. 1. "C/C++" source code keyword processing. 2. Text Tag processing $$HEADER: xyz$$... etc. 3. Left side indent. 4. Dual side-by-side page printing. 5. Save lists of frequently printed files as a set that can be printed with a single command. 6. User specified underline character in config file. 7. Support for PM Fonts. 8. Add a Save AS command for setups for use of saving multiple setups. 9. Set client window to dialog background color. Any suggestions?... Drop me a line at C Prompt. ═══ 8. Registering this Shareware Product ═══ The user is encouraged to register this product with C Prompt. Registration will entitle you to limited e-mail support and to feel good knowing that you have paid for what you are using. The cost of registration is $5.00 (US). Please make checks payable to "C Prompt". ═══ 9. C Prompt ═══ 10723 Preston Rd. Suite 153 Dallas, TX. 75230 Voice/Fax (214) 750-1478 cprompt@ibm.net ═══ 10. Details ═══ The items in each subsection describe specific details about this program. ═══ 10.1. Print Job ═══ A print job is when the program starts to format and print the files in its list. The print job ends when the last file in the list has been printed.