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Atari Mega Archive - Volume 1.iso
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1STW2PS.DOC
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Text File
|
1988-06-13
|
6KB
|
129 lines
06601030305800
1
21stWord to PostscriptPage # of 2
F0110030
9[..................................................]011
Ç
9[..............................]312
à1STW2PS(V3.21)
ä(pronouncedFirst-WordtoPostScript)
Ç
àisaprogramwhichconvertsa
ä
àFirst-word(v1.83)orWORDPLUS
documentintopost-script.
9[...................................................]011
Ç
9[.............................................................]111
Postscriptisasocalledpagedescriptionlanguage.Itrunsasan
interpreteronseveralrasterprinters,suchastheAppleLaserwriterand
severalotherlaserprinters.
SincepostscriptisaninterpreterthatreadsasinputjustplainASCIItext,
difficulttohandlecontrolcharactersarenotneeded.
Although1STW2PSusesthestandardCouriermono-spacedfonts,1STW2PSadjusts
thespacesettingsbetweenthedifferentwordsonalinesothattheyarethe
same.Thislooksmuchbetterthantheoutputofmatrixprinterswithfixed
pitchfonts.Allthedifferentstyles,likebold,italic,superandsubscript,
lightandunderlinedarepreserved.Pictures,aslongastheyareintheGST
pictureformat,lookveryprettyonalaserprinter.Fixedspacesandtabs
arepreserved.Thus,whenafixedspaceorataboccur,thepositionof
thenextprintablecharacterisinthesamerelativepositionasonthe
screen.Idaretosaythat1STW2PSisnotWYSIWYGbutWYSILTWYG(WhatYouSee
IsLessThenWhatYouGet).
1STW2PSneedsastartup-filetoconfigurethepostscriptprinter.Thisfile
iscalled1STW2PS.INI.Youcansendthisfiletoapostscriptprinter,
andthensendyourconverteddocumentsoneafteranothertotheprinter,
withouthavingtosendthestartup-fileeachtime.OnApple
laserwritersacontrol-Dresetstheprinter,sothenyouhaveto
sendthestartup-fileagain.Someprinterspoolersonmainframesdo
this,butwiththeseyoumightbeabletoinsert1STW2PS.INIinsomekind
ofDevice-Control-Library.Icansendyouacopyofaprinter
symbiontwrittenbyEricGiesinforrunningonaVAXwithUNIXorVMSas
theoperatingsystem,aswellasamodifiedversionofthisprogram,
betterdesignedforrunningwithApplelaserwriters,andanextraoptionto
includesetupmodulesandforms.
Theprogramitself:
Whenyoustarttheprogramyouimmediatelygetafile-selectorboxasking
youfortheinputfile.Thenyoucanchoosebetweenoutputtoafile,(the
default)or,whenyouhaveapostscriptprinterconnectedtoyouratari,to
theRS-232orCentronicsports.Whenyouhavechosenthefileoption,you
mustsupplyanamefortheoutput-file,whichnormallywillbeafilewith
thesamenamebutwiththeextensionPS.
ÇThelayoutformlookslikethelayoutformfromWORDPLUS.However,
therearesomemoreoptions.Youcanincludethecurrentsystemdate
andtimeintheheadersjustbyputting"date"or"time"(includingthe
")inoneoftheheaderlines.Thenumbersignstillstandsforthe
pagenumber.Youcanhaveyourheadertitlesprintedindifferentstiles:
Bold,Italic,Lightorsmallorcombina-tionsofthese.Youwon'tbe
abletochangethetotalnumberoftextlines,onlytheheadandfoot
margins.
ThePrint-menugivessomeextraoptions,apartfromthenormaloptionslike
Printfromstart-numbertoend-numberandleftmargin.
FontsizeandLineheightaregiveninpoints.Onepointis1/72inch.You
canalsomakemultiplecopiesofyourdocument.
Youcanchoosetoincludethestartupfile1STW2PS.INI,ornot,andto
appendaCONTROL-D(seeabove).
TheLineheighthasitsimpactongraphics.Onlywithalineheightof12will
yougetthepicturesasyouseethemonyourscreen.
IfyouhaveforgottentochangeanythingintheLayout,justchoosethe
CANCELbuttonandyoucanselectthelayoutformagainfromthemenubar.
Aftertheprintform,theprogramstartsconvertingthewordplusfile.You
canabortthisbypressingtheleftmousebuttonpointingattheSTOP
button.Thereisnoproblemifyouhaveyourpicturesandtextondifferent
disks:youwillbeaskedtogivethecorrectnameofthepicturefile.The
programthemremembersthediskandpathyougive,andforthenextpicture
itwilllookinthatdirectory.
9[.............................................................]101
⌠Integralsinthetextarepossible.Becarefullhoweverthatjustification
|isOFFinlinesshowing(partof)anintegralsign,otherwisethaywillnot
⌡showontherightposition.
9[.............................................................]111
Theprogramhasaverysimplepostscripterrordetectingmecanism.
%%[Errorand%%[PrinterErroraredetectedanddisplayedinanalertbox.You
mustthentakeactionandafterthatpressreturn.
TheoutputfilenowentirelyconformstothePostscriptStructuring
conventions.ThusIhopeitwillnowworkcorrectlyonprinterswhichprint,
forexample,inreverseorder:i.e.thelastpagefirstandthefirstpage
last.
Adjustingthemarginsettings:
In1stw2ps.initheTOFandleftmarginaredefinedas:
tof=780andinitialleftmarginis70
Youcanchangethesedefaultvaluesin1stw2ps.ini:
TOFin:
/aws0def/top780def/lfn100def/fontsize11def/np2stringdef
andleftmarginin:
/hlexchdef0fs/LMLM()stringwidthpopmul70adddef
ÇKnownbugs:Underlineisstillaproblem.Underlinedspacesinfrontofaline
arenotdrawn.Underlinedspacesattheendofapieceoflinewitha
differentfontthenthefollowingpartofthatlinearenotshown.Thebest
thingtodoistounderlineonlythewordsandinterveningspaces,butnotthe
spacesprecedingandfollowingthese.
Anysuggestioniswelcome.
Pleasesendyourcommentsto:
U00170@HASARA5.BITNET
or
BerendF.deVries
1eNassaustraat18-III
1052BGAmsterdam
Holland.