bcx@eeg.UUCP (05/01/87)
We recently purchased an HP laserjet II for use on our 5700. It took
mere minutes to get it up and running as a high-quality line printer
(using the lp interface "HPLjet" from dbw@ariel.UUCP (DAVE B. WOOD) via
USENET net.sources). I only needed to make one modification, which was
to change the line:
stty opost -tabs ixon <&1
to:
stty opost onlcr -tabs ixon <&1
I am currently trying to adapt the nroff terminal description file
("nroff table for HP Laserjet and Font J Cartridge" from sherm@wucs.UUCP
(THE MAN) via USENET net.sources), to run on a masscomp. The problems
I have encountered thus far are myriad:
1. The document supplied with the 5700 ("Writing NROFF Terminal Descriptions,
by Eric Allman) is incorrect on two counts:
a. It appears that the masscomp version of nroff _does_ use the *iton
and *itoff members of struct term:
char *bdoff; /* string to turn boldface off */
char *iton; /* string to turn itallic on */
char *itoff; /* string to turn itallic off */
b. The instructions to produce a description file:
cc -c tabterm.c
strip tabterm.o
cp tabterm.o /usr/lib/term/tabterm
do not work. Instead I have had to use the "table/elbat" programs
(from bnr-vpa!bruce (Bruce Townsend) again via USENET), to produce
an acceptable file.
[mod: The document supplied by masscomp does not apply to the nroff supplied
by masscomp -- sigh -- sob]
2. The masscomp nroff has an artificial limit on the size of a terminal
description file. Anything over ~1850 bytes causes nroff to print
"terminal file too big" and exit. (UCB 4.2 has no such limit).
Needless to say, the hp laserjet II requires some _very_ long
escape sequences to produce the special characters.
3. As a work-around to the problem in 2 above, I striped the long
escape sequences from the file and created a post-nroff filter
to produce them. Since I needed an otherwise unused character
to signal the special characters to the filter, I used \026.
Unfortunately, masscomp nroff _strips_ control characters from
the description file strings. I also tried \001, \0036 and \177!
4. Frustration with 3 led me to signal special characters to the filter
by using _printable_ characters. ("|" and "~", doubling either
for a print-thru). This worked (somewhat) but led me to:
a. Masscomp nroff refuses to output the *twinit string (I need
this to get the printer to use the J font cartridge) or the
*twrest string (to restore the printer).
b. Phantom characters are produced, specifically "||1", and
I have no idea where they are produced.
As of this writing, I have still not gotten the HP laserjet II to
work with masscomp's nroff.
As a side note, the original description file works just fine
under UCB 4.2 nroff.
PS. (excuse the pun)
The device-independant troff supplied with the 5700 lacks the makedev
program. But I won't even begin a troff font/DESC file until I get
character widths from HP.
[I think the intention was to supply all the troff tools with sp-09,
the laser printer support package...Why? I don't know... sob]