NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #26/NN_1992_26.iso/spool/comp/os/vms/17554

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-06 | 4.5 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!ogicse!uwm.edu!zazen!psl.wisc.edu!dbk
From: [e-mail] (Don Katz)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: Postscript SETUP modules for use with DECprint
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 5 Nov 92 22:29:36 GMT
Article-I.D.: pslu1.1992Nov5.222936.23759
Organization: Physical Sciences Lab, UW-Madison
Lines: 100

In article <[e-mail]>, I wrote:
>
>We are running DECprint Printing Services (CPS) as the symbiont to
>serve our DEC 2150 Postscript laser printer. We would like to have
>forms that would allow people to print text files with various numbers
>of characters per line and lines per page, for example, 132x66, or
>200x66, or 105x48 in landscape. We already do this for our old LN03. I
>have read the DECprint manual, which has an example, but although I know a
>little postscript, it is difficult to write a setup file without
>knowing more about the Postscript emitted when a text file is sent to
>a CPS printer.
>
>Question 1) Is there someone who has done this already? I would be
>eternally grateful if you would share your setup modules with me.

Two respondents, [e-mail] (Ari Rabinowitz, WorkStations
x6518) and [e-mail] (John Hiday, Eli Lilly)
enlightened me with the information that CPS is designed to understand
LN03 escape sequences. So we were able to use our existing library of
setup modules by doing the following:

1) redefine the searchlist used for setup modules to include
laser.tlb (our LN03 setup library).

$ define/sys/exec cps_lib cps$devctl,"laser/data_type=ansi"

The /data_type=ansi qualifier is required. This indicates that the
library should only be searched when the input in ANSI data, and that
the contents are ANSI escape sequences, and should be so interpreted.

2) Stop and restart the queue to force it to read the new logical name.

$ stop/queue/next psl_alcove_ps
$ start/queue psl_alcove_ps

Couldn't have been simpler. Thank you very much to both Ari and John.

Carl Lydick < [e-mail] > provided access to his
postscript setup modules:

Send>  mail to [e-mail] containing the line
>
> SEND ASCII_TO_POSTSCRIPT
>
> as the body of the message.  You'll receive several files that do the sort of
> stuff you're asking about (not to mention one that prints crossword puzzles :-)

These looked great, but although they worked fine when I prepended
them to a text file, using them as setup modules did not work for me
(the printer just sat there waiting for data until I killed the
entry). I did not try to diagnose the problem, since the first
solution worked for us.

In answer to my second question:

>
> Question 2) Is there a way to capture the postscript emitted by the
> symbiont into a file, so I can more easily write and test setup
> modules?

Ari Rabinowitz replied:
>
> Yes, again.  What I did for this is to create a postscript setup module
> which just reads the input sent to the printer and prints it back to
> the user.  To use it you have to specify /SETUP=PSSAVE/PARAM=MESS=KEEP
> which creates a log file in your SYS$LOGIN.  The Postscript setup module
> must be inserted into a postscript device control library which is
> pointed to by the Library Search List defined above.
>
> The actual postscript module follows:
>
> %! PSSAVE setup module to save the Postscript output from the Symbiont
> save /stl 65535 string def /gtl { currentfile stl readline { sl } { sl
> exit } ifelse } def /sl { print (\n) print } def /rdt { { gtl } loop
> restore } def rdt
>
> What this does is save the current context, then define a maximum length
> string to store the input.  It then defines gtl which reads the line and
> calls sl to print the line, and exit if at the end of input.  Sl  simply
> writes the line to the messages, which go to the log file if you specify
> /PARAM=MESS=KEEP.  rdt just loops calling gtl until gtl exits, then it
> restores the context.
>
> Be warned that the ANSI translator has a tendency to send a lot of
> postscript preamble before your actual data.

I did not try this. This postscript module uses the same principle as
Carl Lydick's modules, that is, the postscript code reads its own
input stream.

Thanks to everyone who replied. The net has proven its worth once
more.

Don

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don Katz                                .         Physical
                                       .- / \ -.      Sciences
University of Wisconsin - Madison   ./'  /+-+\  `\.       Laboratory   E-MAIL