ccea3@rivm.UUCP (Adri Verhoef) (12/23/89)
What I'm looking for is a program that can be used for printing to the AUX-port of a terminal. Normally you put your print requests via lp(1) in a queue, a daemon will come along then and handle your request. With a printer interface you can "drive" the printer. The program that I'm looking for can't really be a daemon. The user, who has a printer connected to the AUX-port of the terminal, will invoke the program, that will determine which initialization string to send to the printer (according to the type of the printer and the print options) and "drive" the file through the AUX-port to the printer, where it will be printed. This means that the terminal is put into Printer Controller Mode, where all characters received by the terminal are sent directly to the printer. There could of course be a load of options, such as: - form size (e.g. 12x8 inch) - top, bottom, left, and right margin - line density (lines/inch) - char density (chars/inch) - landscape mode - cut line at right margin Furthermore: - support for underlining / bold - input is either standard input, or one or more files I would be very grateful if I could get any hints leading to sources. Or maybe you can tell me how it was done at your site. -- Adri Verhoef (uunet!rivm!a3 || a3@rivm.uucp), site administrator of the National Institute for Public Health and Environmental Protection (RIVM).
steve@pmday_2.Dayton.NCR.COM (Steve Bridges) (12/25/89)
In article <1908@rivm05.UUCP> ccea3@rivm.UUCP (Adri Verhoef) writes: > > What I'm looking for is a program that can be used for printing >to the AUX-port of a terminal. [ much text deleted....] On the terminals I am familiary with, there is some sort of prin screen key. The steps to do what you want could be broken down into a few simple steps: 1. Figure out what sequence of characters turns on the aux port of your terminal. Perhaps a terminfo type database for your program could work. 2. Send a byte stream to your terminal that gets sent back out the aux port (see step 1). I have seen a program like this somewhere, but can remember how. -- Steve Bridges | NCR - USDPG Product Marketing and Support OLS Steve.Bridges@Dayton.NCR.COM | Phone:(513)-445-4182 622-4182 (Voice Plus) ..!uunet!ncrlnk!usglnk!pmday_2!steve "Helicopter 4 Mike Bravo cleared low-level to the heliport"
wrwalke@prcrs.UUCP (William Walker) (12/27/89)
In article <1908@rivm05.UUCP>, ccea3@rivm.UUCP (Adri Verhoef) writes: > > What I'm looking for is a program that can be used for printing > to the AUX-port of a terminal. > check out PD1:<MSDOS.KERMIT>PCPRINT.C on simtel20.arpa. it was written by Frank DaCruz and the kermit folks at columbia. > The user, who has a printer connected to the AUX-port of the terminal, > will invoke the program, that will determine which initialization string > to send to the printer (according to the type of the printer and the print > options) only works for vt100's or good emulations thereof. works great on my clone PC running ms-kermit 2.32. i have used it with an HP laserjet-II and my epson 2500 look-alike. > There could of course be a load of options, such as: > << wish list deleted >> > Furthermore: > - support for underlining / bold > - input is either standard input, or one or more files underlining and bold are supported as overstrike. E^H_X^H_A^H_M^H_P^H_L^H_E^H_ would come out as underlined EXAMPLE. This is not fancy, but it works great especially when your office is a distance from the nearest printer or when you must work from home. Take a look and hack to your heart's content. input is either stdin or file list. > -- > Adri Verhoef (uunet!rivm!a3 || a3@rivm.uucp), site administrator of the > National Institute for Public Health and Environmental Protection (RIVM). -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= William Walker --- wrwalke@prcrs.UUCP --- 530N-3 x-2565 NO Santa Claus, I said Mickey Mouse Phone, not IBM-PC Clone. Oh well, there isn't really THAT much difference. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
bill@bilver.UUCP (Bill Vermillion) (12/29/89)
In article <1908@rivm05.UUCP> ccea3@rivm.UUCP (Adri Verhoef) writes: > > What I'm looking for is a program that can be used for printing >to the AUX-port of a terminal. > > Normally you put your print requests via lp(1) in a queue, a daemon >will come along then and handle your request. With a printer interface >you can "drive" the printer. [lots of stuff deleted] Unless I am mis-interpreting your request what you want is really fairly simple. If Unix v or derivatives just go to the interface programs in the spooler directory. Use the interface that drives the printer but just modify slightly. Define a printer name that will be attached to the terminal. Makes it's destination the serial port of the terminal. Do all your processing, cutting, filtering, etc, that you normally do, but in the interface script, modify it so that the first thing that is sent to the port turns off the keyboard and then turns on the parallel port. vt100's use something like \E[5i to turn on and \E[4i to turn it off. wyse50 use Cntrl X to turn on, contrl T to turn off. At the end of the script use the sequence to turn the port off and the keyboard back on. (Those esc sequences are from memory so check your terminal manual first.) All you have to do then is tell the system the destination. It is best to tell only the person who's terminal the printer is attached to the destination. Anyone can print to the terminal, but it's not polite. :-) I'd guess about 70% of the systems I work on have printers attached to the terminals, or PCs with terminal software. They like to be able to do local proofs of letters, etc before going to the shared quality printers or laser printer. Local printing is reall nice on systems with the smart serial cards that multiplex the data so you can print while still using the keyboards. Hope this helps, as the other answers I saw were rather vague. -- Bill Vermillion - UUCP: {uiucuxc,hoptoad,petsd}!peora!tarpit!bilver!bill : bill@bilver.UUCP
brnstnd@stealth.acf.nyu.edu (01/05/90)
If you're using termcap, define po (printer on) and pf (printer off) as whatever codes are listed in the terminal's manual. Then use tput. ---Dan