cfchiesa@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Christopher Chiesa) (06/16/89)
Although officially I'm a programmer type, I've wound up doing some system
management, and there are a couple of things going on with our LN03 laser
printer -- to which the SYS$PRINT queue sends its offerings -- that irk me.
Someone here "before my time" set up three modules in SYS$LIBRARY:SYSDEVCTL.TLB,
that work with the /SETUP qualifier on the PRINT command to effect variations
of output format; I have a couple of skimpy reference pages that have allowed
me to analyze what these things are doing, although not in a complete, all-
interactions-understood fashion:
RESET -- contains one escape sequence that RESETs the LN03; apparently
sent to the LN03 at the beginning of EVERY print job.
PORTRAIT -- contains a few escape sequences that set LN03 internal
"margins," "font size," etc. etc.; apparently sent to the
LN03 by default when no /SETUP appears on the PRINT command.
Results in a standard 8x11, "vertical" page, printed 66 lines-
per-page (ideally) (i.e. 66 lines the "long" way on the page,
x about 80 columns the "short" way, in "normal size" type).
LANDSCAPE -- contains even more escape sequences that set the LN03
internal "margins," "font size," and page format; sent to
the printer when /SETUP=LANDSCAPE appears on the PRINT
command. Results in an 8x11 "horizontal" (maybe I should
say an 11x8) page, printed 66-lines-per-page in "smaller"
print (i.e., 66 lines the "short" way on the page, x 132
columns the "long" way).
After analyzing these, I also added a fourth module of my own, something of a
hybrid, that sets up Landscape mode's "small" font size, but prints in "verti-
cal" or "portrait" orientation; it gives about 90 lines-per-page the "long" way,
by I'm not sure how many columns the "short" way. I called that module PACKED,
and set it up to be invoked as part of a print FORM I defined, also called
PACKED. I can say "PRINT/FORM=PACKED filename," and it prints the way I intend-
ed it to.
Problems are as follows:
1) Printing in PORTRAIT mode occasionally mis-breaks a page, leaving a single
line at the top of one page, then continuing anew at the top of the following
page. It's what I'd expect if the file contained a formfeed character right
after the line-that-sits-alone, but there is generally NOT a formfeed at that
point in the file when I investigate. I suspect some sort of disagreement
between the "/MARGIN" or "/LENGTH" qualifiers in DEFINE/FORM, and the internal
LN03 settings being established by those escape sequences. Can anyone suggest
specifics? Do you need to see the specific escape sequences?
2) Printing in LANDSCAPE mode ALWAYS results in the FIRST LINE of the FIRST
PAGE (i.e. the FIRST LINE PRINTED, period) being printed "shifted two charac-
ters to the right," that is, there are two blanks FIRST, THEN the text of that
line. This isn't too bad (although it looks a little messy) on header-page
banners, but when I PRINT/NOHEADER it's the first line of TEXT that gets bitten.
I've heard that another site that uses a similar (maybe the SAME) setup module
has the same problem, so it's not a hardware malfunction. Seems weird to me
that escape sequences for SETTING UP the printer should have effects on the
position of ONE LINE of text; it looks to me like one or another escape sequence
is introducing (or "letting through") two spurious blanks that are getting into
the LNO3's data stream. Again, can anyone suggest specific fixes or "things to
look for?" I can provide details of the escape sequences on request, although
I suspect that would be best done through E-mail.
Thanks in advance for any assistance.
Chris Chiesa
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