Aminet 1 (Walnut Creek)/Aminet - June 1993 [Walnut Creek].iso/usenet/sources/volume91/utilitys/print15a/part02/print.doc

Text File | 1991-03-14 | 20KB | 424 lines

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                   P R I N T   D O C U M E N T A T I O N
                          V E R S I O N    1 . 5A
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1 WHY DID I WRITE PRINT?
    Well,  this  might  be considered an intelligent question if you look at
the  thousands of different printer drivers, handlers and the like that are
available in the public domain today.  Well, none of them could truly solve
half  of my printing problems, so I decided to write my own.  I didn't want
it  to  be  one  of  these fancy handler-style, deep-into-dos-an'-exec-like
programs  (I'm  not  a  capacity  in this area anyway), it should just be a
relatively small and easy to handle & comprehend CLI program.

    What  also  kinda'  p..   me off was the fact that no program was really
interested  in  what  I had set via preferences, nor did the printer behave
properly  in  the  handling of German characters or braces and parenthesis.
There  stood  this  fantastic piece of hardware (a P6+ in my special case),
connected  to  an even more fantastic computer, and I should not get what I
wanted?   So  I  sat down and coded this thinging of which you are just now
reading the docs.

2 WHAT PRINT DOES
    Print  lets  you  sort  of completely specify the output of your printer
without  having  to enter and change preferences every two minutes or so or
having  to  break  your fingers to get to the dip switches of your printer.
Print  will  handle  special German umlauts correctly and map them to their
proper  values as well as intercept the thousands of form feeds that mainly
utility programmers love to put into their text files :-)

    In  addition  Print will allow you to change type size and print quality
of your printer and lots of other neat things.

    As  far  as  I  know Print is the first program for the Amiga which gets
German users both Umlauts AND brackets in one go without using the graphics
mode.  If I'm wrong, please tell me so I can shoot myself...

3 RESTRICTIONS & KNOWN BUGS
    Sorry   for   all   those   scientists   among  you  who  enjoy  reading
broken-up-in-half  lines of text on ripped perforations.  I set the default
to skip this piece of paper...

    Print  has never been tested on any other printer than my NEC.  It might
happen that errors come up if the command set is loaded by scan_file().  If
they do, please let me know.

    When  using  different  printer fonts than the IBM (yuck!) one, problems
might come up when characters are mapped.

    In  addition,  Print does not currently map the whole IBM font correctly
to  the Amiga's keymap, but this should not really pose a problem if you're
not trying to print ANSI files :-)

Print needs both the arp.library and the req.library.

4 HOW TO USE PRINT
    Print is called from the CLI with the command line

        1> Print [options] {switches} file1 ... file20

you  can  mix  up options, switches and file names to your heart's content.
Print  will  consider  everything  not beginning in a '-' (minus sign) as a
name  of  a  file to be processed.  VERY IMPORTANT:  You MUST leave a space
between  an  option  and  its argument.  If you fail to comply to this rule
Print  will  just  ignore  the  value  and  assume the default value of the
certain  option.   'Print -p 45 myfile' would be a valid command line which
would set the pagelength to 45 lines of text, for instance.

    Another nice feature:  if you don't give a filename Print will just send
the specified options and switches to the printer.  This means you are able
to  adjust  your  printer  without having to touch it.  Make sure that your
printer is online when you use Print this way, otherwise Print won't return
until is is able to write the commands to the printer, e.g.  the printer is
online.


5 OPTIONS AND SWITCHES
    Remember, online help is available at any time by typing

            Print h

to  the  CLI  prompt.   Print will then give you a brief description of the
commands and switches it knows about.

6 LIST OF OPTIONS
    Options  are  commands  which  require an argument to be supplied by the
user.   In  order  not to have to type tons of numbers to the program, I've
tried  to  keep  the  numbers  of  options  small or at least set them to a
sensible  default  value.   Over  here  in Germany, most people use fanfold
paper  for  example,  which will take 72 lines of output without a problem,
and  due  to  the fact that I initially wrote this program for ME :-) i set
most  of  the  default values in such a manner that the result would please
me.  Should your wishes totally diverge from mine, go and write yourself an
alias which automatically inserts your favourite options and switches.

    -f file    Read printer command sequences from file. See following sections
            for more details.

    -i        This number will determine the number of blanks that
            Print puts in front of each line. The range of this
            value is 1 to 30, the default is 8 spaces.

    -l        The value given after this option sets the number of
            lines on each page. Note that this value is not the
            amount of lines actually written out. Some space
            is kept on top and at the bottom of a page for the
            optional footline. The range is 2 to 100 lines per page,
            the default value is 72.

    -t        The argument given to this option will determine how
            many spaces are written to the printer for each tab.
            This is a very neat option which will make your
            printouts look really nice! The range is 1--16 spaces
            per tab, the default being 3.

    -u        This is for all you users who insist on using a different
            national char set than the USA default setting. Print is
            programmed in such a way that the mapping of chars will
            only work properly if the printer is in USA mode. As there
            is no known means of getting the printer's default char set
            you use, this is the place to put the char set number. When
            printing of  the last file is finished, Print will tell the
            printer to switch back to the specified char set.
            The range of this value according to NEC specs is 0--14,
            with Print's value defaulting to 2 (German char set). Omitting
            this options might cause strange results when printing
            listings with lots of parenthesis and the like.
            To find out which number your char set is just take a look
            at the printer manual.

    -o        This option tells Print that the print head is not exactly
            at the beginning of the paper (i.e., the perforation) but is
            offset by n millimeters. I chose this unit because it allows
            the use of integer arithmetic, and I don't wanted Print to
            get blown up by the floating point library. The option
            "-o 60" would tell Print that the paper is 60 mm further down
            (or up, rather) the drain than normal. The range of this value
            is from 0 to 300 millimeters. If Print fails to convert your
            given parameter, the default value of 62 mm is used (in the
            case of the P6+ the distance from the print ruler to the
            rim of the back top plastic cover).
            Note that Print bases it calculations on the 6 LPI setting!

6.1 THE PRINTER COMMAND FILE
    If you're not lucky enough to own a NEC, you can use the command file to
change  the  programs command table.  Each line in this file (which you can
create  using  your  favourite  editor)  must  consist  of  five  hex bytes
separated  by  spaces  or tabs and a string at the end denoting the printer
command to be set.  For example, the line

    1c 48 ff 00 00 tencpi

would  tell Print that your printers command for switching to 10 CPI is "1c
48".   The  byte "ff" is used to indicate the end of the command.  Not that
even  though  the  above  command is only two bytes long you MUST give five
bytes in the line.  This is due to the fact that the array is five bytes in
length  to  provide storage for veeeryy long commands too.  Apart from that
the  scanning  of  the  command  file  is  still done via fscanf() (yuck!!)
because I was once again too lazy to think of any other way, and especially
programmers  know that this routine behaves funnier than your mother in law
if it does not get what it expects :-)

Another example: The command file line

    1b 43 ff 00 00 lperpage

is  the  command  to  set  the  pagelengh  to  n  lines  according  to  the
manufacturers specs.  Note that the two "00"'s are used as padding bytes to
make total byte number add up to five.  When Print sends the command to set
a certain page length to the printer, it will scan the command table, write
the  bytes it finds to "PAR:" until it encounters the "ff", telling it that
this is the end of the command.  If the command requires an argument, Print
will send the argument directly afterwards to the printer.

    Here  is  list  of the commands the parser (hmm, well, a simple parser!)
understands:

    "tencpi"                    ---    switch to 10 CPI
    "twelvecpi"                ---     "       " 12 CPI
    "fiftcpi"                ---     "       " 15 CPI
    "setquality"            ---    switch to NLQ
    "setdraft"                ---    switch to High Speed Draft
    "neglinefeed"            ---   perform a negative line feed
    "loudness"                ---    full speed printing
    "quiet"                    ---     half speed printing
    "resetprinter"            ---    full printer reset
    "changecharusa"        ---   switch to USA char set
    "changecharother"        ---   switch to other than USA set
    "set8lpi"                ---   switch to 8LPI
    "set6lpi"                ---   switch to 6LPI
    "underline"                ---   set underline for file name & date

If you don't name all of these commands in the command file, Print will use
the default NEC settings for the undefined ones.  This might result in some
funny  characters appearing in your printout.  To get rid of these just set
the  sequences  to harmless spaces (0x20) which end in the command end byte
"ff"  or  don't use them via command line switches.  If your printer is not
capable of, say, quiet printing, use the command file line

    ff 00 00 00 00 quiet

to prevent the appearance of funny escape characters.

    The command file line

    20 20 20 20 ff underline

would convert the underline command to four harmless spaces.

    Oh, I forgot: ALL COMMANDS MUST CONSIST OF LOWER CASE CHARACTERS.

7 LIST OF SWITCHES
    Switches don't take an argument. Put them anywhere you like!

    -B        Selects the "BIG" 10 cpi font.
    -M           "     "  "MEDIUM" 12cpi font (DEFAULT)
    -S            "     "  "SMALL"  15cpi font.

    -F        if given, the first line of the printout will be the
            name of the file. The default is not to print the filenames.
            Also prints the date.

    -P        turns on the pagenumbering. The counter will be reset to 1
            after each file printed. (Default is off)

    -Q        this switch selects near letter quality mode of the PinWriter.
            This is also the default print mode (we want our listings
            to look nice, don't we?).

    -D        selects the draft mode (fast, but ugly, yuck!). For those
            among you who are always in a terrible hurry.

    -N        selects quiet (half speed) print mode.

    -R        Inhibits resetting the printer after last file. This is for
            people who trust this program!

    -T        If you do not want incoming characters to be mapped to their
            IBM char set equivalents, use this option.

    -8        Causes Print to use the 8LPI jammed print mode.

Note that the program discriminates between upper and lower case letters!

7.1    CALLING PRINT FROM THE WORKBENCH
    To  call Print from the Workbench double-click on its icon.  At the time
this  is  written it's not clear wether I'll include the parameter passing.
The current version however will not accept passed parameters.

Using  Print  on  the  Workbench  is a pretty straight forward job:  If you
doubleclick the icon or type

    1> Print15a

to  the  CLI  prompt,  print will open up a window on the Workbench screen.
The  functions  of Print are then controlled via the various gadgets.  Note
that  not all options and switches of Print are usable from this window.  I
introduced  this  facility  to provide a shortcut invocation of Print for a
fast  print  job  where  you  don't have to set options like page length or
alternate national printer char set.

    The  rest  is quite self-explanatory stuff, really.  If you click around
the  gadgets a bit you'll notice which values you can use from this window.
To  print  a  file, enter your favourite settings and then click the "Print
File"  gadget.  This will bring up the famous ARP file requester which lets
you  select  the  filename.   When done, click the requester's "OK" gadget.
Print  will  then start the print job and change the print gadget's text to
"Please wait" until it is ready to take on the next job.

    Print  also  lets you use the values that were set with Preferences, and
now  you  can  even  be  sure that the values will actually be used for the
printout  :-) Click on the "prefs" gadget to the right of the "info" gadget
to load the preferences settings.

    Click  on  the  "info"  gadget  in  the  upper  right  hand corner to get
information on the legal stuff.

    If  you don't need Print and want the clumsy window out of the way for a
while,  just  click  the  "Have a nap" gadget.  Print will then iconify its
window  and  reduce  the  priority of its task to -10 to avoid blocking the
system  (of course WaitPort is used to wait for messages!).  Doubleclicking
the icon will reopen Print's window and restore priority to 0.

   The "req" gadget will let you choose between arp's and the req.libraries
file requester, the default being req.library.

   To get information concering the time print needs to print a file, click
the  "pre"  gadget  and choose the file you want to print.  The information
Print gives is of course only approximate and valid for the NEC P6+.

8 THE LEGAL STUFF
    Print  is  copyright  (c)  HooverSoft  1990.  All rights remain with the
author  of  this program, Uwe "Hoover" Schurkamp.  Permission is granted to
distribute  this  program  freely provided no fee is charged and that it is
distributed  in  its  unmodified zoo file together with this documentation.
Explicit permission is granted to Fred Fish to include this program and all
its  files  in his library and for everyone who wants to put it on a BBS or
usenet-like facility.

    If  you  feel this program comes in handy and if you use it on a regular
basis  I  ask you to make a donation to your favourite charity (Cheers, Art
Skiles,  for the idea!) like Greenpeace or whatever you like.  Please don't
forget to worry about this planet, the worlds that the AMIGA creates aren't
real...

9 DISCLAIMER
HooverSoft  makes no warranty whatsoever to the fitness of this program for
use and disclaims liability for any damage resulting from the use of Print.
In other words:  Use it if you dare!

10 PRINT REVISIONS AND SMALL HISTORY
Version 0.01:
    Wouldn't  dare  call  this  a  release.  Just coded something because of
boredom...  Introduced multiple file names and the like.

Version 1.00:
    Coded  help,  user  settable  type  size, interception of Form feeds and
inclusion of file names.  Kicked the concept of using spool files as output
to  send  data  directly to PAR:  Also programmed settable perforation jump
(with  VERY  strange  results).  Tooks lots of pains to make Print's banner
look nice (the 'nec' stuff appears purple on my prefs, hmmm :-)

Version 1.01:
        Once  again  kicked  concept  of  using  NEC's  auto jump.  Print now
'simulates'  perforation  skip by printing lots of \n's.  Introduced option
to print out page numbers.  Things seem to go quite well!

Version 1.02:
    Printing  quality  is now user settable via -Q and -D options.  Killed a
bug  in  the  interception  of  ff's  (Print  really  didn't  capture them,
whooops...)

    Also  did  some  optimization  on  the code like getting rid of obsolete
options and the like.

Version 1.03:
    Fixed  a  bug  with  first  printed  line  that Print refused to indent.
Thoroughly tested Print's performance on a couple of really long files.

Version 1.04:
    Print  should  now be a bit shorter (did some optimization on the code).
Removed  superfluous  cr after printing of last file.  The paper should end
up just right now after printout.  Added switches -N and -R.

Version 1.1:
Introduced  a  new option -u to take other national char sets into account.
Fixed a bug in the PutCommand()-routine.

There  might  have been a very big bug in earlier versions which could have
caused  Print  to not perform as advertised:  I left out an init of an auto
variable  which  could  have jammed up the command table.  Well, no one has
complained so far...

The  biggest  improvement  is  perhaps  the  ability to load other printers
command  sets.   As  I only have one printer, I really rely on you to point
out any error!

VERSION 1.11:
Introduced offset option and killed a bug that would cause the NEC to print
BACKWARDS  if  you  didn't  use  -R  switch.   Boy,  that's funny!  Maybe I
shouldn't  drink  so  much  wine  when programming...  Print now resets the
printer by default.  Print now also maps the "1/2" char correctly.

VERSION 1.2:
8LPI  printing  introduced.   -T  switch  added.  couple of other minor bug
fixes.

VERSION 1.5A:
MAJOR  rewrite  of  Print  which  now  looks  a  totally different program!
Included  Workbench  startup,  huge  requester and making use of ARP's file
requester.   It's  been  a lot of work, but I think it has payed off in the
end,  don't  you think?  Changes are too many to mention them in detail, so
go and find out yourselves.

11 BUGS AND FLEAS
    If  you  find any of these ugly creatures in my great code (hu hu) worth
mentioning drop me a line on bitnet to

        [e-mail]

or by SNAIL to

        Uwe Schurkamp
        Jollenbecker Weg 4
        D-4900 Herford

    Print  is  quite  a large program (for my standards anyway), and testing
all its features in combination with each other would probably use up about
half  a  rain  forest's  worth of paper.  Well, I wrote Print to get rid of
tons  of  unsatisfying  printouts,  and I DO rely on my users to report any
errors.

12 THE CREDITS
    Cheers  to  JENS  MENSCHING  for many bug reports and the idea to put an
Inutition  interface  into  Print.   The Print icon is by courtesy of MAGIC
MOUSE  Inc.   (alias  BERND  HEIDE, who has not yet decided to take on this
name  :-)  ...   I really like it!  Also LEO SCHWAB requires mentioning his
name  in  the docs if you use his iconify() routine...  Thanks, Leo!  (Note
for  the  users:   If  Print gurus on you when iconifying, drop Leo a line!
;-)  Leo's  routine  is  a MUST for any serious program (which doesn't mean
Print  is  a serious program!).  Cheers also to the guys who programmed the
fantastic req.library.

    Last  but not least a big "thanks" to MY WIFE for allowing the time with
this  great  piece  of  technology (she couldn't play MechForce while I was
hacking...)  and to MY unborn SON for delaying his arrival until I finished
this program (if there is something like a "final release" of a program).


enjoy & be lucky

        hoover

P.S.: play NetHack!
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