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^Cby
^CDavid Leithauser and George Leritte

    There are many different models and brands of computer printers on the
 market, giving users a wide variety of features.  Unfortunately, such an 
 assortment of printers and features also creates compatibility problems.  The 
 control codes that tell one printer to perform a certain function, such as go 
 into italics mode, can have a totally different effect on another printer.  A 
 piece of software designed for one printer may not work correctly on another.  
 The program could be sending a message to the printer, such as a code for "Go 
 into graphics mode," and your printer interprets it as something else, like 
 "Spit out a sheet of paper." 

    The most common example of printer/software incompatibity is how line 
 feeds are handled.  Some  printers automatically provide a line feed each 
 time they receive a carriage return. This is fine unless you have a version 
 of DOS that also provides the line feed each time a carriage return is sent 
 to the printer, resulting in two line feeds and an extra blank line after 
 each printed line.

    ^1Printer Converter Generator^0 provides a solution to this type of
 problem.  It creates memory resident programs (also known as TSR programs, for
 Terminate and Stay Resident) that convert one printer code to another.  For
 example, suppose you have a program that supports the ABC printer and you have
 the XYZ printer.  The ABC printer uses the code 27 25 to go to italics mode,
 but the XYZ printer uses 0 1 96.  You could use Printer Converter Generator to 
 create a memory resident program that intercepts 27 25 every time it is sent 
 to the printer and converts it to 0 1 96. 

    Consider the line feed example.  You could create a program that converts
 13 10 (carriage return followed by line feed) to just plain 13 (carriage
 return alone) or a program that converts the line feed (10) to nothing at 
 all, thus deleting all line feeds going from the computer to the printer. 
 This program can also be used to create codes you can put in your documents 
 to control the printer.  Let's say that your word processor does not have any 
 features for creating special effects, like italics, in your documents.  
 Select a character that you do not use in your documents, such as the 
 asterisk or caret, and create a memory resident program that will convert 
 this character to the desired control code for your printer.  Place the 
 character in your document wherever and whenever you want to send the control 
 code to your printer.  If there is no character you are willing to sacrifice 
 to this cause, you could make it a string of characters like "=+=" instead. 
 Just pick a string that is very unlikely to occur in your document. 

     In order to make it easy to experiment with the control codes, I have 
 written Printer Converter Generator (PCG) so that it creates files of 
 conversion pairs.  Each conversion pair consists of two strings of ASCII 
 characters.  The first is the string of characters that your computer 
 (actually your program) is sending to the printer to cause a certain effect 
 (like a page feed).  The second is the string of characters that you want the 
 computer to send to produce this effect.  For example, there might be three 
 strings of ASCII characters that your program sends to the printer that do 
 not work right on your printer.  In this case, you would create a file 
 containing three conversion pairs.  After you have created this file, you 
 would have PCG use the data in this file to create the TSR program that 
 changes each of the code strings output by your computer to the desired code 
 string.  You can also save the file of conversion pairs, so you can correct 
 any mistakes you make or add to it later. 

^CUsing Printer Converter Generator

 ^1Moving around the menu^0

    You can move around the menu by using the left and right arrow keys or by
 pressing the first letter of the option you wish to execute.  When the
 highlight bar is on the desired option, press ENTER.  The large box on the
 screen contains the list of conversion pairs currently in memory. 

 ^1Load^0

    This option allows you to load into memory a file that you have previously 
 saved.  The computer will show you a list of conversion pair files in the 
 current default path.  Move the highlight bar to the file you wish to load 
 and press ENTER.  If you do not wish to load a file, press ESC.  Once you 
 have loaded a file, you can add to it, delete from it, or edit individual 
 pairs. You can then use the modified file to create a new TSR conversion 
 program.  If you have made changes to the list currently in memory, you will 
 be prompted to save the list if desired. 

 ^1Edit^0

    This allows you to change any part of any conversion pair currently in
 memory.  When you choose this, the computer moves the highlight bar to the
 list of pairs on the screen.  The list consists of a description you provide 
 for each conversion pair.  Move the highlight bar over the description of the 
 pair you wish to edit and press ENTER.  If you wish to add conversion pairs, 
 go to the bottom of the list where it says "Add conversion Pairs" and press 
 ENTER. If you wish to delete a conversion pair, press the DEL key and you are 
 prompted with a "Delete this entry?" prompt.  To delete the highlighted pair 
 press "Y". If you wish to insert a pair or series of pairs, press the INS key 
 and you are taken to the input screen.  To return to the main menu, press the 
 ESC key. 

    When you edit or add conversion pairs, the computer will display an input
 screen.  Near the top is a long square where you can enter a short description
 of the conversion pair you are entering.  For example, suppose the conversion
 pair changed the code that causes a line feed.  You would put something like
 "Line Feed" in the description box.  If the conversion pair was for the code
 to go into the graphics mode, you could put "graphics mode" in the description
 box.  The program will use this description to refer to that particular
 conversion pair later.

    Below the description box is a row of small boxes for the characters in the
 code string that your program is sending to the printer.  Put one character of
 the code in each box, starting with the leftmost box, until you have input all
 the characters in the code.  For example, if there are three characters in the
 control code, put one character in each of the first three boxes.  If the
 character is an easy one to type on your keyboard (such as the letter "A"),
 just type the character in the box.  If it is an ASCII code that you cannot
 easily type (such as the Esc key), press the F2 key to put that box into ASCII
 mode and type the ASCII code for that character (such as 27 for the Esc key)
 in the box.  ^1Note:  There must be at least one character in this row of 
 ^1boxes in order to get the program to save the data (the pair).

    Below this row of boxes is another row of boxes for the string of 
 characters you WANT the computer to send to the printer.  Input this series 
 of characters in the same manner as mentioned above. 

    You can move around the screen from box to box using the cursor keys (up,
 down, right and left).  The ENTER key acts the same as the down cursor key,
 except in character mode (versus ASCII mode which is the mode you are in 
 after pressing the F2 key), and the backspace key acts the same as the left 
 cursor key.  When you have filled all the necessary boxes, press the F4 key 
 to save the pair.  If you are adding codes, you will stay in the input screen 
 until you press F10. 

 ^1Save^0

    This saves the file of conversion pairs that you have created onto disk.
 Note that this is the list of conversion pairs that PCG uses to create a TSR 
 conversion program, not the TSR program that uses them. 

    When you select this option from the main menu, the computer will display a
 list of conversion pair files in the current default path.  If you wish to
 overwrite an existing file, move the highlight bar over the file you wish to
 overwrite and press ENTER.   If you wish to create a new file, move the
 highlight bar over the words "New File" and press ENTER.   You can then enter
 any legal file name, up to eight letters.  Do not use an extension, since PCG
 adds its own extension.

 ^1Generate Conversion Program^0

    This option creates a TSR Code Conversion Program from the file currently
 in memory.  The computer will display a list of COM files on disk.  If you
 wish to overwrite one, press enter and the program will overwrite it.  To
 create a new program, place the highlight on "New File" and press enter.
 Enter any legal name up to eight letters.  The PCG program will automatically
 add the COM extension and save the program on disk.

 ^1New^0

    This erases the file currently in memory.  You would use this option when
 you have created and saved a file (and presumably also generated a TSR
 program) and you now wish to create another, totally different file.  If you
 have made changes to the list currently in memory, you will be prompted to
 save the list if desired.

 ^1Quit^0

    This allows you to exit the program.  You can also exit the program by
 pressing ESC.  If you have made changes to the list currently in memory, you
 will be prompted to save the list if desired.


^CUsing the Memory Resident Programs

    Once you have created a memory resident program, you can return to DOS.  
 To install a program, type its name and press ENTER.  The computer will load 
 the program and then return to DOS.  Nothing visible will have happened. 
 However, any time you send one of the old codes controlled by this program to 
 the printer, it will be replaced by the new code.  This will remain in effect 
 until you remove the TSR program from memory.  You usually do this by 
 rebooting the computer or turning it off. 

^CSample Conversion Files Provided

    We have included several sample conversion files.  If you want to be 
 able to print text from an issue of Big Blue Disk using some other program 
 besides the Big Blue Disk menu, just generate a conversion program using the 
 ^1BBDCODE.CPF^0 file.  This program will clean up the printout by "stripping" 
 out all the control codes we place in the text.  Many printers do not handle 
 printing the box character set (the characters you see around all titles in 
 our text files).  The files ^1BOXASCII.CPF^0 and ^1BOXBLANK.CPF^0 will give 
 you the ability to either convert the Box character set to a corresponding set 
 of characters that your printer can handle (BOXASCII.CPF) or to "strip" them 
 out altogether (BOXBLANK.CPF).  Finally, more in line with its designed 
 purpose, we have included ^1EPSONCDE.CPF^0 which contains the Epson printer 
 control codes.  Just add the control codes for your printer before generating 
 a conversion program from this file. 

 ^1NOTE:^0 Since we have provided so many sample files on this disk, there is 
 limited room for saving any additional information.  If you need to create and 
 save several conversions files, you should plan on moving this program to 
 another floppy disk or to your hard drive. 

    To run this program outside ^1Big Blue Disk^0, type: ^1PCG^0.


 DISK FILES THIS PROGRAM USES:
^FPCG.EXE
^FBBDCODE.CPF
^FBOXASCII.CPF
^FBOXBLANK.CPF
^FEPSONCDE.CPF