[comp.sys.apollo] HELP !!!

krowitz%richter@UMIX.CC.UMICH.EDU (David Krowitz) (01/05/90)

I'm stumped again (as usual). We do a lot of plotting with 2D GMR. We have
a short program which re-opn
re-opens an existing GMR metafile and then uses GM_$PRINT_FILE to make an
OUT1 format file which we can then translate into HPGL for our plotter.
The problem is that as of SR10.2, this stopped working for most (but not
all) metafiles. What we get is (usually) an OUT1 file in which the first
command is the end-of-file command and the rest of the file is filled with
zeros. It is *not* a problem re-opening the metafile. If I do a
GM_$DISPLAY_FILE after re-opening, the file is display correctly on
the screen. Any ideas of what to do next?


 -- David Krowitz

krowitz@richter.mit.edu   (18.83.0.109)
krowitz%richter.mit.edu@eddie.mit.edu
krowitz%richter.mit.edu@mitvma.bitnet
(in order of decreasing preference)

SRFERGU@ERENJ.BITNET (Scott Ferguson) (01/05/90)

At the ADUS Conference in San Francisco two years back, I asked some of the
Apollo graphics group why the OUT1 format was having problems even at 9.5,
and they said they were no longer supporting that format, and that was that.
They offered no explanation, just that they didn't seem to care. I was pretty
miffed, seeing as I had an Imagen driver using them, and it was doomed to
the junk pile. Then, I noticed that the format continued to exist, but I
think they just haven't bothered to remove the code. Maybe now they've done it.


Scott

tonyd@hplsla.HP.COM (Tony DeMartino) (02/14/91)

Hello Anybody,

I am a Unix beginner who has been asked by someone else to get info
on how to connect an HP Scanjet Plus to an Apollo 400t. 
They will be connecting it to the parallel port(duuu) and I think
they think they will be able to use it in FrameMaker.

My questions are ...

How to configure the Scanjet so it will work.
Will FrameMaker use it directly(I don't think so) and if not
what package or utility do they need to use it.


They did not purchase the Scanjet from HP so the company they bought it
from it totally lost as well. If there is any documentation availbale
that will help to.

Thanks in advance.

Tony DeMartino
Lake Stevens Instrument Division.

krowitz@RICHTER.MIT.EDU (David Krowitz) (02/14/91)

Oooo, I think you *may* have a problem ... I don't have a 400t in house,
so I can't say for certain, but ... It was my understanding from many
hours of talking to HP/Apollo people that the "parallel" port on machines
running Domain/OS (ie. SR10.x) is a Centronics port ... a Centronics port
that did DMA output, and not input. If my memory is not completely fouled
I seem to remember that you had to buy an HP-UX machine to get an HPIB
(ie. GPIB) parallel port.


 -- David Krowitz

krowitz@richter.mit.edu   (18.83.0.109)
krowitz%richter.mit.edu@eddie.mit.edu
krowitz%richter.mit.edu@mitvma.bitnet
(in order of decreasing preference)

krowitz@RICHTER.MIT.EDU (David Krowitz) (02/15/91)

Hah! Wrong again! John Mandler of HP/Apollo tells me that the series 400
Centronics port will work with both write *and* read calls from the standard
I/O streams, similar to a serial line. I stand (once again) corrected. Rather
than using the SIO_$ calls to configure the port (like you do with a serial
line), you use the "pio.conf" file.

== Dave

steve-t@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Steve Taylor) (02/16/91)

//tonyd@hplsla.HP.COM (Tony DeMartino)// writes:
| I am a Unix beginner who has been asked by someone else to get info
| on how to connect an HP Scanjet Plus to an Apollo 400t. 
| They will be connecting it to the parallel port(duuu) and I think

//krowitz@RICHTER.MIT.EDU (David Krowitz)// writes:
| that the "parallel" port on machines running Domain/OS (ie. SR10.x)
| is a Centronics port ... a Centronics port that did DMA output, and
| not input. If my memory is not completely fouled I seem to remember that
| you had to buy an HP-UX machine to get an HPIB (ie. GPIB) parallel port.

The Scanjet's parallel connection is a flavor of Centronics, not HPIB.
The Centronics port on the S400 is designed specifically to handle Scanjet
in as well as regular Centronics out.  I know of people in HP who have
Scanjets talking to S400 machines (I'm not one of them, so I don't know
any details), but they're running HP-UX rather than Domain.

						Regards, Steve taylor

NOT A STATEMENT, OFFICIAL OR OTHERWISE, OF THE HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY.