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Text File | 1992-06-03 | 24.2 KB | 644 lines

============================================================================== ============================================================================== DocDump V2.1 The Document Dumper ============================================================================== ============================================================================== A print utility for Epson (TM) 9-pin and compatible printers. Written by Robert Grob. ============================================================================== ============================================================================== CONTENTS OVERVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 LIST OF OPTIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 SHAREWARE NOTICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 DISTRIBUTION CONDITIONS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 DISCLAIMER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 FILES REQUIRED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 USING DOCDUMP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Dump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Booklet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 FF support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Super/Sub. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Tab support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Chop LF. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 To PAR:, SER: or File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Lines/Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Line Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Title. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Analyse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 About. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Load . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Save cfg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Abort. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Print. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 PRINTING A DOCUMENT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 MAKING A BOOKLET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 DOCDUMP AND SINGLE SHEETS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 KNOWN BUGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 PROBLEMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 HISTORY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 OVERVIEW DocDump is a print utility that reduces the amount of paper required to print an ASCII-file. This can be done in the following modes: - BOOKLET mode, handy 5.5 x 4 inch double-sided booklets, almost 8 times as much text can be printed on a sheet (double-sided). - DUMP mode, 4 times as much text on a sheet. - COLUMN mode, handy for source-code, also 4 times as much text on a sheet. DocDump is very useful for BBS listings, shareware manuals, source code etc. I wrote DocDump (DD from now on), because I haven't seen such a program on the Amiga. In the PC world there are several programs which do a similar thing. DD however is unique in its Booklet mode. DocDump is SHAREWARE, which means you should pay a $5 fee, (See shareware notice) if you find DD useful. It is worth it !. Have Fun ! LIST OF OPTIONS - Booklet : 8 pages on each sheet, 4 pages on the front, 4 on the back, including back- and frontcover. - Dump : 4 pages on each sheet, single-sided. - Column : 2 columns each sheet, single-sided. In all of the modes mentioned above, date, time, doctitle and pagenumber will be printed. - Analyse option : DD will calculate the amount of paper required. It is also useful to check what effect different settings have. - Tab support : Files containing tabs will be printed correctly. Tabsize can be ajustable or switched off. - FormFeed support : DD wil support FFs if required. - LineFeed chopping : 'White spaces' in text; a number of linefeeds, can be reduced to a desired value. - PP Patch support : PowerPacked files can be printed if the PP Patch program is started before DD. - Kickstart 2.0 compatible. DD also correctly prints MS-Dos ASCII files. SHAREWARE NOTICE DocDump is NOT in the Public Domain. It is SHAREWARE which means you should pay a shareware fee to the author. If you find DocDump useful and will use it regularly, send $5 (five dollar) to : Robert Grob Oranje Nassaulaan 6 4101 JT Culemborg (Gld) The Netherlands It will be appreciated. If you have any useful tips, let me know. DISTRIBUTION CONDITIONS DocDump may be distributed freely on the condition that no profit is gained from its distribution. The following files must accompany the program DocDump unmodified : - DocDump.info - DocDump.info2.0 - DocDump.doc - DocDump.settings - req.library If you want to use DD with the WB 2.0 colors then you must rename DocDump.info to something else and rename DocDump.info.2.0 to DocDump.info. DISCLAIMER I am not responsible for any kind of damage this program may cause. Use it at your own risk. FILES REQUIRED DD needs the requester library (LIBS:req.library) and the parallel device (DEVS:parallel.device). If you own a serial printer you will ALSO need the serial device (DEVS:serial.device). You can put DocDump.settings in your S: directory, but this is not neccesary. DD will create a new file if requested. The PAR: device is used because the Epson ESC/P codes are sent directly to the printer. We can not use the PRT: device because it does not sup- port enough commands to get the line spacing of 0.078 inch that DD requires. USING DOCDUMP DD can be started from WorkBench or CLI. DD will open a window with 20 gadgets. In the bottom right-hand corner you will see 6 buttons which will perform an action if pressed, all the other gadgets will set different modes or settings. All gadgets can be altered any time. As soon as the PRINT button is pressed, all settings will be read. The printer must be switched on before the PRINT button is pressed. - Mode : The first button on the top left-hand corner will select the type of printout. By pressing this button, a different mode can be selected. Possible are : - Dump : Output will be single-sided, 4 pages on one sheet numbered 1 2 3 4 New page 5 6 7 8 New page etc... - Column : Output will be single-sided, 2 pages on one sheet numbered 1 2 New page 3 4 New page etc. - Booklet : Output will be double-sided, 4 pages on the front, 4 on the back, for example a 10 page document will come out like this: 1 10 3 8 New page 5 6 Paper turned and reinserted B.cover F.cover 9 2 New page 7 4 Every time the mode button is selected, Lines/Page will reset to its default value for that particulair mode. - FF support: If a file contains formfeeds ($0C or Ctrl-L), DD will respond to them. (Printing will be continued on a new (small) page, not on a new sheet !). Suppose DD prints 58 lines a page, what will happen if a document has a formfeed every 60th line ? The first 58 lines will be printed nicely en DD decides to start a new page, but after two lines on the new page a FF command appears and DD will start on a new page again. As a result you will get pages consisting of a few lines only. Therefore the FF support function can be switched off. - Super/Sub: With this switch can be decided which pins to use; the upper or lower 5 (super- or subscript). This is useful, because now you can switch between the ribbon-halfs and prolong the life of the ribbon. ( In fact, this switch can be (mis)used in another way, I know somebody who lost his 4 upper needles in a horrible paperjam, and now DocDump is the only printprogram he can use !). The next three options named Tab, Chop LF, and To xxx have a gadget and an accompanying string gadget. - Tab support: Tabs ($09) will be processed correctly according to the tabsize set in the string gadget. This function can be switched off. - Chop LF: Instead of using formfeeds, some documents achieve the pageformatting by inserting a lot of linefeeds until a fixed value for lines/page, for example 66, is reached. Because of the way DocDump prints, the maximum is 62 lines/page (not in Column mode) and the document mentioned above will be printed with lots of 'white spaces'. But here is the solution. If Chop Lf is switched on, every linefeed, (or linefeed ($0a) followed by CarriageReturn ($0d) ) AFTER the value held by the accompanying string gadget will be deleted. By default this value is 3, which means the biggest 'white space' you will see is 2 line- spaces wide.(One linefeed is needed to return the carriage, so 3-1=2 ! (Great math!)) This function can be switched off. - To PAR:, SER: or File With this button the output direction can be changed. To PAR: assumes that the printer is connected to the parallel port. To SER: will direct the output to the serial port using the preferences serial settings. To File will dump the output in a file named after de filename set in the string gadget. . If Column or Dump mode is active, one file will be created. In Booklet mode, two files will be created. The extensions .Front and .Back will be added. These files hold the outputdata of both sides. The resulting file(s) can be copied directly to your printer. For example : Copy Ram:DDout.front PAR: - Lines/Page : This gadget sets the number of lines printed on each page. This is by default 62 in Dump mode, 128 in Column mode and 58 in Booklet mode. A bigger value depends on the printer you use. Some printers may have bigger values but watch out, do not choose the values to big otherwise formfeed will not work properly anymore. If the printout doesn't fit on the sheet, decrease this value. - Line Spacing : Divide the value held in this gadget by 216 and you will have the linespacing in inch. By default this is 17/216 = 0.078 inch. You may change this if you like, but remember the Lines/Page may have to be changed also. - Title : The name of your document (incl. pathname) will be placed in here as soon as a file is loaded. The title will be printed at the top of every page and on the frontcover in Booklet mode. If you don't like the title or the extension, alter it. The title will be printed on every page, and in Booklet-mode also on the frontcover. - Author : If you know the name of the author who wrote the document, you can put it in here. It will be printed on the frontcover of a booklet. Booklet mode only. - Date: The system time will be copied in this string as soon as DD is started. If the system time is incorrect or you don't like the format of the date, just change it. The date will be printed on the frontcover of a booklet and on every page in Dump and Column mode. The Action gadgets - Analyse: When this button is pressed, a window will appear. DD begins to calculate how many pages are available in the doc using the settings you made. DD also reports how many sheets the document needs. - About: You already know this one. - Load: Clicking this button will reveal a file requester, choose the file you want to print. The whole file will be loaded in memory. Important: Every time the Load button is pressed, the file in memory will be lost. - Save cfg: All settings except Title, Author and Date will be saved in a file called DocDump.settings in the S: directory. When DD starts up, those settings will be read. - Abort: This is the only button which will be checked during printing, it aborts the print operation. It may take a few moments for DD to respond. The number of characters which are printed after the ABORT button is pressed, could be up to the size of your printers print buffer. - Print: This starts the actual printing. Before you click this button, make sure the printer is switched on. Positioning the paper: The ACTUAL printing should take place 1.6 cm (0.625 inch) from the top of the page (on tractor-feed-paper). This means, that on my printer the top of the paper is level with the top of the printer-head-case. You may have to experiment to achieve this. In booklet mode: keep the distance the same when the paper is turned. A window opens up and the number of pages will be calculated. DD maps the doc (Booklet mode only) and starts to print. No extra formfeed is sent at the end of the document; some people who use single sheets instead of tractor-feed paper found it irritating to see a just feeded sheet thrown out again without even a dot hammered on it. As soon as the print operation is finished the window will close and DD is ready for the next job. If the Booklet mode is active : Because Epson printers don't have a build-in facility to print double-sided, we must do this by hand. That is, pull the paper out, leaving the sheets stucked together and reinsert it with the backside of the first printed page up. This only has to be done once, if you use tractorfeed paper. ( DD supports no extra single sheet options, but it is possible though, see "DocDump and single sheets".) Turning the paper: When the booklet is finished for about 50 %, the window will ask you to turn the paper. DON'T DO THIS IF YOUR PRINTER IS STILL PRINTING, wait till the printerbuffer is empty and you will hear 2 beeps, produced by the printer (This one differs from the "Out of paper" beep). Now get that paper out of your printer, and leave the sheets stucked together. Some printers (like the Epson LX 800) require an extra page at the end to avoid an "Out of paper" message. You may even turn your printer off while changing the paper! ( DD will initialise the printer again ), just don't forget to turn it on again. Reinserting the paper: Make sure the printing will be continued ON THE BACK OF THE FIRST PRINTED PAGE. Just to check: When the paper is put back in the printer again, and you look THROUGH the top page, you must see "PAGE: 1 .." MIRRORRED in the UPPER RIGHT CORNER. Click the PRINT BUTTON to continue printing. That's all. PRINTING A DOCUMENT In general: 1 Start DocDump 2 Click LOAD and choose file 3 Select mode and change some settings if you want to. 4 Click ANALYSE if you want to analyse the document first. 5 Click PRINT MAKING A BOOKLET - Start DocDump - Click the Load button and select the file to be printed, for example this file. - Change the Title, Author or Date if you like. - Click Analyse if you want information on size, the number of pages or number of sheets. Make sure that enough paper is available. - Switch the printer on if you haven't done this already and position the paper, ACTUAL printing should begin 1.6 cm from the top of the paper. - Click PRINT, press ABORT anytime to cancel the print operation. - After a while the printer will beep twice and a message in the statuswindow will appear. Pull the piece of paper out and reinsert it (See the PRINT button) again with the first printed page on the back. Remember you may even switch off the printer to achieve this. - Activate PRINT again. - After the printing is finished, pull the paper out and tear the sheets apart. You will see dotted lines on the sheets. Cut ALL the dotted lines. You now have 2 pages on the front and 2 pages on the back side on every half-sheet. Collect all pages and put them together. They should be the same size now. If this isn't the case: Make sure the bottom of each page is level with the other pages. Now cut the pieces from the top of the pages till all the half-sheets are the same size. - The pages are numbered, so there should be no problems sorting the pages. Anyway, a hint : Find the odd pages starting from page 1 ( 1, 3, 5, etc.) and place them on each other. For example a 10 page document : __________________________________ | Page 1 Page 10 | | __________________________________ | | Page 3 Page 8 | | | __________________________________ | | Page 5 Page 6 | | | | | | | | - Fold the whole package and the booklet is almost finished. In order to staple you must open the book in the middle and slightly fold (Not to sharp!) one set of pages, now the stapler will reach the middle of the book : ___________________________________________ | Page 5 | Page 6 | | | | . | | | | | | |<- Fold here slightly | | . | | | | | | | | | | . | | | | | | | | |____________________|____________________| | | ________________________________ | Page 5 || | | || | | || | | || | | || | | || | | || | | || | | || | | || | |____________________||_________| Turn booklet ! | | ________________________________ | Frontcover _|__________|________________ | ( upside down ) | | | | Stapler | | |_____________________________| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |____________________|__________| Your Booklet is finished! DOCDUMP AND SINGLE SHEETS No special features were built in to use DD with single sheets. First, the Lines/Page value has to be reduced. Change the value 58 to 54, or 62 to 58. Everytime a formfeed is generated, the printer will produce an'Out of paper' -beep and/or a message. When this happens, set the printer OFF-line, insert a new sheet and hit the Auto-Load button on you printer.( I assume your printer has an Auto Load button, all Epson 9-pin printers (and compatible) I have seen have such a button or a similar one). Printing will continue as soon as the printer is set ONline. In Booklet-mode : Keep feeding NEW sheets everytime you get an 'Out of Paper' message from your printer. Do this until the printer beeps twice and DD tells you to turn the paper. Now insert the previous printed sheets beginning with the first printed page. KNOWN BUGS None. I have printed over 60 documents with DocDump and had no problems whatsoever. The testers also did not find any, so if you find a weird bug, please tell me, I will appreciate it. Please give detailed information (if possible) about other programs running, guru number etc. DocDump is tested on an Epson LX800, Star LC20 and Star NL10. They caused no problems. PROBLEMS Printer trouble Symptons : DD doesn't print small characters. Cause : Your printer isn't Epson compatible. Solution : Wait for the DocDump update. Symptoms : Almost-empty sheets between printed sheets. Cause : Lines/Page and/or Line Spacing is set too big. The few lines that don't fit on the sheet will be printed on the next, a formfeed will go to the next page leaving almost a whole sheet empty. Solution : Decrease Lines/Page and/or increase LineSpacing. Symptoms : Almost-empty pages between printed pages. Cause : The document contains formfeeds almost every page and has more lines between the formfeeds than the value held in Lines/Page. The few lines that do not fit on one page will be printed on the next (small) page, a following formfeed will begin a new page again, leaving some space unused. This problem is almost the same as the previous one. Solution : Switch formfeed support OFF or, if your printer can manage it, try to increase the Lines/Page value. HISTORY Version 1.1 11-Jan-1992 CLI version of DocDump. Version 2.1 29-May-1992 Intuition version, first public release, - Column mode added - Printout optimized - Speed optimized - System time added Thanks go to Dick van der Linden for his useful tips, Annemarie for helping me with this doc, C.W. Fox and Bruce Dawson for their exellent freeware requester library and to all the testers.