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~-*- PRIM PRINTER UTILITY - INSTRUCTION MANUAL -*-~ `(c) 1987 by Dale Cotton, Toronto` ~ Table of Contents ~ ~- Topic -~ ~Page~ 1. An Introduction: What Prim Does . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2. Some Uses For Prim . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3. Trying Out Prim . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 4. Compatibilities . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5. Interactive Use and Customizing . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1. Entering the File to Print . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2. Changing Colours and Chimes . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3. Setting the Margins . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4. Choosing a Pitch . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 5. Using H)eaders and F)ooters . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 6. Line S)pacing . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 7. Changing Printer Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 8. Saving Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6. Command-Line Use . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 1. Command-Line Flags . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2. Command-Line Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 7. How To Stop Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 8. Why No Right Margin Setting? . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 9. Allowing R)esets . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 10. Using Font Toggles . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1. Redefining Toggles . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 11. More on Line Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . .10 12. Typing-Through with Prim . . . . . . . . . . . .11 13. Further Suggestions . . . . . . . . . . . .11 14. Using Prim with the Gemini Star . . . . . . . . . . . .12 15. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . .12 16. Terms and Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . .12 1. Share-Ware Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . .12 2. Payment . . . . . . . . . . . .12 3. Warranty and Support . . . . . . . . . . . .12 17. Prim Printer Utility - Order Form . . . . . . . . . .13 ~ 1. AN INTRODUCTION: WHAT PRIM DOES ~ Welcome to Prim! Prim is intended to help you make fuller use of your Epson compatible dot-matrix printer. Print jobs fall into three categories: word-processing, graphics, and ASCII text files. Literally hundreds of programs are available to handle your word-processing and graphics needs but the area of text file printing has received short-shrift 'til now. Yet your need to print text files is increasing daily. Each time you download a new Share-Ware utility you get a .DOC file like this one. Each time you send or recieve E-Mail on your local or national bulletin board, such as CompuServe or Bix, you create ASCII text. If you use SideKick or one of the dozens of Share-Ware text editors you create ASCII files. And, most especially, if you write any programs in dBASE, BASIC, Turbo Pascal, etc., you are creating text files. [Beginners: if a file can be viewed without garbling with the DOS TYPE command, it's ASCII. But don't use the TYPE command, use Vernon Buerg's utility gem, &List&^1^: it's more powerful yet easier to use.] ~ 2. SOME USES FOR PRIM ~ Prim allows the use of pica, elite, compressed, and miniscule pitches; it provides margin control, line-spacing control, headers, footers, page numbers, and font toggles (explained below). At first you may wonder why you would need this fuss simply to dump a text file to the printer. As you play with these new possibilities from the Prim menu, however, I believe you'll quickly find they are worth the few seconds of extra effort involved. Here is a list of some of the most obvious uses for Prim: 1. Allowing for top and bottom margins means your print-out no longer runs across the page perforations. Now you can use the perforations instead of hoping they won't tear. 2. Once you've separated each page of a document, headers and footers allow you to keep clear which pages belong together. Page numbers keep them in order. 3. Using elite or smaller pitches helps to keep run-on lines on the same line of the page - a problem which often confronts the pro- grammer. Whether you program or not, elite or compressed makes it possible to print with wider margins either for visual appeal or to allow storing the document in a ring binder. - No more reams of loose print-out lying around! 4. Without printer control your printer uses 6 lines-per-inch line- spacing. Save paper in printing a long .DOC file manual by setting Prim's ~S~)pacing menu option to 8. Programmers will find this option especially beneficial. Seeing more code per page helps by revealing flow-patterns, and aids in de-bugging. 5. If you use the &SideKick& notepad or your favorite text-editor for your daily chores you probably have got into the habit of creating memos and personal letters this way. If the document doesn't re- quire right-justification, there's really no need to bother with the over-kill of your word-processor. Now Prim allows you to make the print-outs of these documents tidy and well-centered on the page. ~ 3. TRYING OUT PRIM ~ To demonstrate these claims let's print this manual using some of Prim's special features. It's 1066 lines will be printed nicely on 13 pages with 82 lines per page, saving five or more pages from nor- mal printing. Printing this manual will serve another purpose besides giving you a sample Prim print-out; it allows you to test for printer compatibility problems. To start, simply type prim at the DOS prompt and press enter. You should now be seeing something like this: ---- PRIM an ASCII File Printer ------------------------------------------- | ~N~)ame: | | | |>>-~W~)idth->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>-~D~)epth->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>| | ~85~ 110 140 Other 85 ~110~ 140 Other | |>>-P)itch->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>| | Pica ~Elite~ Compressed Miniscule NLQ | |>>-Margins->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>| | ~L~)eft ~12~ ~U~)pper ~2~ ~B~)ottom ~2~ | |>>-~H~)eader->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>| | ~None~ Phrase File name 1st page only | |>>-~F~)ooter->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>| | None Fancy ~Page# only~ Ignore perfs | |>>-Toggles->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>| | (~1~) Super[^^] (~2~) Sub[@@] (~3~) Bold[~~] (~4~) Undln[&&] (~5~) Italic[``] | |>>-Miscellaneous->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>| | ~S~)pacing (lines/in): ~8~ ~R~)esets allowed: ~Yes~ No | | ~#~) of first page: ~1~ ~Z~)eros slashed: Yes ~No~ | |____________________________________________________________________________| | Enter the name of the ASCII file you wish to print. | |____________________________________________________________________________| | -->[ ] | |____________________________________________________________________________| | You may use drive, path, and mask. E.g. C:\stuff\file*.doc | |____________________________________________________________________________| At the bottom of the screen Prim is waiting for you to type in the name of the file to be printed. Step 1. Type prim.doc and press enter. Now you are turned over to the menu prompt, a center arrow. Step 2. Check the upper screen; if the highlighted ~P~)itch is not elite, press the ~P~ key then hit the ~E~. (Do not hit enter after either one.) Step 3. If the ~L~)eft margin does not show 12, press ~L~, enter 12. Step 4. If the ~U~)pper and ~B~)ottom margins are not both 2 press ~U~ and ~B~ and enter 2s. Step 5. If the ~S~)pacing is not 8, press ~S~ then change it. Step 6. Press ~F~ for ~F~)ooter followed by ~P~ for Page numbers only. Below the Footers line is the Toggles line. The last step involves checking these settings. (Notice that in the screen facsimile above and in the following three steps I've had to use double symbols when refering to the caret, at-sign, and tilde. This comical measure is the result of trying to make this manual self-illustrating; the reasons for this will become clear in section 10, below.) Step 7. Press ~1~ for the (~1~) Super[^^] toggle. If the character in the Super box isn't a caret, press ~R~ and press the caret key (shift+6) in answer to the toggle question; otherwise simply press ~A~. Press ~2~. If the character in the Sub box isn't an at-each sign [@@], press ~R~ then press the at-each key (shift+\) in answer to the toggle question; otherwise simply press ~A~. Repeat the same process for ~3~), ~4~), and ~5~): bold should be a tilde; underline, an ampersand; italic, a left-quote. If you have a Gemini Star read section 13 before proceeding. Check that your printer is turned on, aligned to the top of a new page, and set to programmable: then press the End key (the ~1~ of your numeric key pad) to send this file off to print. The menu blanks and changes to Prim's printing status report. (To interrupt printing at any point - press any key.) When Prim is done sending the file to the printer it chimes to let you know you have control of your computer again. . .in case you went to the kitchen for a sandwich. ~ 4. COMPATIBILITIES: ~ Now check the print-out. If you are not seeing elite pitch, the left, top, and bottom margins we specified, if ~text like this is~ ~not bolded~, and text like ^this is not superscripted^, and @this is@ @not subscripted@, &this is not underlined&, and `this is not in italic` - we've got problems! One thing Prim can't do is magically turn a non-Epson compatible printer into a compatible one. If your printer does not pass the Prim compatibility test, see section 5.7. below on changing your code settings for a possible solution. There is a very good reason why previous printer programs, such as the rugged &LinePrint& in Norton's Utilities, have not provided as much control as Prim does. The greater the extent to which a program makes use of a printer's resources, the more likely it will run into diffi- culty with printer compatibility. A look at the dozens of printer set- -up files which come with any powerful word-processor will demonstrate how endless are the variations in the ways printer manufacturers have gone about implementing the same printer features. It's truly a jungle out there! Prim uses the standard Epson FX command set and works as is on all current Epson FX and LQ dot-matrix printers and true clones. It has been tested on many Roland, Panasonic, and Mannesmann Tally dot-matrix printers as well as the Gemini SG-10 and the IBM ProPrinter. Users of some other machines may find that various features or feature combina- tions will not work properly on their machines. If the response war- rants, versions of Prim may be created, tailored to the particular re- quirements of other popular printers. ~ 5. INTERACTIVE USE AND CUSTOMIZING PRIM ~ Prim provides two ways of setting-up your print-jobs: the menu front-end and command-line entry. To enter the Prim's menu mode type Prim and enter at the DOS prompt. You will be presented with a full- screen menu system for selecting printer set-up options. Let's take a few moments now to explore the menu and in the process customize Prim to suit your own tastes. ` 5.1. Entering the File to Print ` Prim begins by requesting a file name to print. If you know what file masks are, you can use a mask to allow the printing of batches of related files. If you are using a hard-disk, you can precede the file name or mask with a path to allow printing of files in any sub- directory. If the file you wish to print is not even on the current disk, you can specify the file's drive in the usual DOS fashion. As a trial-run I'd suggest something small such as an E-mail note or a batch file. Or you may simply press enter to defer making a decision for now. After you have made an answer and pressed enter, Prim checks the en- try you've made by searching for the file you've specified. If you've entered a file it can't find, you are warned of this fact. The purpose of the warning is to prevent you wasting your time on an elaborate set- up only to discover you've entered a bad file name or path. Prim does allow you to save the set-up, exit, correct the situation and return. The reason Prim accepts a blank file name without warning is because it accepts the blank as the uncritical file mask: *.*. To fix a spell- ing error or change the name of the file you wish to print, simply type an ~N~ for the menu option ~N~)ame. `Note: you `don't` need to press Enter when answering any Prim question which requires only a one-letter answer.` Once you have answered the first question, you are free to choose any other option on the menu. To do so simply type the first letter of that option's name and the appropriate question will appear. For instance, if you press the ~F~ key, Prim will ask you which type of footer you wish to employ. ` 5.2. Changing Screen Colours and Chimes` Perhaps the first thing to try, if only for the fun of it is the colour function keys: F5, F6, and F7. This excellent approach to changing screen colours has been "borrowed" from Vernon Buerg's &List& utility. Even if you are using a non-colour screen (like my Toshiba's), it may be useful to experiment with the Vernon utility to make sure you are getting the most from your screen. We'll see how to save your favorite colour combination in 5.8. below. F2 allows you to define how many times Prim should chime when finished printing - from none to almost a thousand at roughly two second intervals. ` 5.3. Setting the Margins ` >>-~W~)idth->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>-~D~)epth->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ~85(Wd)~110 140 Other 85 ~110~ 140 Other >>-Margins->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ~L~)eft ~10~ ~U~)pper ~2~ ~B~)ottom ~2~ The width and length (depth, on the menu) of the paper you are us- ing should be set if necessary. If you have a wide-carriage printer but are using letter-sized paper, choose menu option ~W~ and set the width to 85 even if it already is 85. The important part comes next when Prim asks if you are using a wide-carriage printer; answer "yes". (Wd) will now appear next to the 85. For technical reasons this is necessary to help Prim keep track of line numbers as it prints, which in turn keeps the bottom margin even from page to page. The ~L~)eft margin number needs to be relatively bigger to get the same effect the smaller the pitch you choose. An inch is 10 in pica, 12 in elite, and 17 in compressed. The size of the top and bottom margins depend on the line ~S~)pacing value. Trial and error is the best teacher for learning what you like in margins. ` 5.4. Choosing a Pitch ` >>-~P~)itch->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Pica ~Elite~ Compressed Miniscule NLQ Of the five pitch settings offered on Prim's menu some may not be available on your printer. My sister's out-of-date C. Itoh simply doesn't offer an elite pitch option. I haven't yet met a dot-matrix without compressed but that's not saying they're not out there. NLQ is only available on more recent machines; and on a few of these it simply may not work with Prim. The miniscule setting is a new vogue among BBS cognoscenti. It is really only a combination of compressed and subscript or superscript, but it seems to be as unique as any of the others. Personally, I find miniscule too small for daily use; but it may prove useful to some in an archival situation. The nitty-gritty about these possibilities is thus: pica spaces its characters 10 to the inch. NLQ does the same - the difference is in the print quality, not the size. Elite puts 12 characters to the inch. On most printers compressed puts 17 characters to the inch; perhaps on older printers this figure may be 15. Miniscule is compressed script printing so it also uses the compressed horizontal spacing of 17 or 15. With miniscule, however, you should probably set the vertical spacing to 12. To do so, see section 11, below. The purpose of having narrower pitches is to allow longer lines to fit across the page. This arises most often in programming. With nor- mal 8 1/2" by 11" paper (only the first 8 inches of which are usable on narrow-carriage printers) you have a maximum of 80 character spaces in pica, 96 in elite, and 137 in compressed. An obvious rule-of-thumb with today's monitors: if the line is too long to show at one time on the screen, it is too long to print on letter-sized paper in pica. Near-letter-quality mode is only primitively implemented on the av- erage low-to-medium priced dot-matrix printer. In the vast majority of cases NLQ mode only works in 10 cpi pitch, making it just a spiffy version of pica. One would expect to be able to combine NLQ with elite, or compressed, for example, but it doesn't work out that way. Inci- dentally, don't naively expect that all font toggles will work within NLQ mode on an inexpensive printer. ` 5.5. Using H)eaders and F)ooters ` >>-~H~)eader->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> ~None~ Phrase File name 1st page only >>-~F~)ooter->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> None Fancy ~Page# only~ Ignore perfs The ~H~)eader and ~F~)ooter options may prove a puzzler for the uninit- iated. A header is simply a title line which appears at the top of a page; a footer is a similar line appearing at the bottom of the page. Prim allows you to type in a line of text (phrase) to appear as the page header, then allows you the option of using it on the first page only of the print-out or on every page. Using it on the first page only makes it what might be thought of as the job or report title. If you wish, you may alternately instruct Prim to use the name of the file you are printing as the header line. Use Ignore perfs also when the file you are printing contains its own page-breaks (ASCII #12). The footer options provide you with three alternatives. You may show the page number alone at the bottom of page, or surround it with the file name and today's date (useful to programmers). This second option is referred to as the Fancy foot. Ignoring perforations means that the printer will simply keep on printing when it comes to the bottom of one page and the top of a next. In this case any values which have been specified for the bottom and top margins are ignored: you don't need to set them to 0. The font toggles menu options are fun, but I would recommend leaving them until you have familiarized yourself with the other options on the menu. ` 5.6. Line Spacing ` This topic will be discussed in a little more depth below. For the moment press the ~S~)pace option and enter a 6 if you're happy with the familiar 6 lines-per-inch of normal printing or enter an 8 if you want to try the more compressed, paper-saving 8 lines-per-inch. (Unless you are using miniscule pitch - in which case 12 is recommended.) ` 5.7. Changing Printer Codes ` If by chance some of the menu alternatives do not work as expected, it may be because your printer uses a different print code for a given task than the one the Epson-compatible one used by Prim. The second page of the menu provides you with a facility for changing these codes. However, unless you are familiar already with such "set-up strings", I recommend you read the section in your printer manual on Escape Codes, and if possible enlist the help of a more seasoned computerist. There is nothing terribly arcane about printer codes, but for some reason they tend to be somewhat ill-willed towards novice users. Press the PgDn key to get this menu screen if you haven't already: ____________________________________________________________________________ | | |---- PRIM an ASCII File Printer -------------------------------------------| | - Current printer codes - | | | | ~A~) Pica 27/80 ~B~) Elite 27/77 ~C~) Compressed 15 | | | | ~D~) Subscript 27/83/1 ~E~) Superscript 27/83/0 ~F~) Script Off 27/84 | | | | ~G~) Italics 27/52 ~H~) Italics Off 27/53 ~I~) Dblestrike 27/71 | | | | ~J~) Double Off 27/72 ~K~) Emphasized 27/69 ~L~) Emph'd Off 27/70 | | | | ~M~) Left Margin 27/108 ~N~) NLQ 27/110 ~O~) 6th Spacing 27/50 | | | | ~P~) 8th Spacing 27/48 ~Q~) Lines/inch 27/51 ~R~) Reset 27/64 | | | | ~S~) Underline 27/45/1 ~T~) Under Off 27/45/48 | | | | | |____________________________________________________________________________| | Enter letter of the printer option you wish to change | |____________________________________________________________________________| | -->[] | |____________________________________________________________________________| | F2>Save F4>Chimes F5-F7>Colours 1/PgUp>Return F10>Quit End>Print | |____________________________________________________________________________| To understand printer codes open your manual to the chapter on escape codes and look for the section which explains which code is needed to set your printer to pica pitch. 27/80 is what you should see for pica on Prim's second menu. With luck, this will match the code in your printer manual, though it may be presented in a different format: as Escape+"P" or as CHR$(27)+"P" (which is BASIC format). Most manuals also show the decimal and hexidecimal equivalents. In this case the decimal, which Prim uses, is 27 + 80 and the hex is 1B + 50. Users of Lotus' 1-2-3 are already familiar with decimal-form printer codes, so that is the format I've chosen for Prim. Once you've got a handle on the pica code, browse through your manual to compare the decimal codes given in it with the decimal codes on the Prim menu. Hopefully, as the fog starts to lift, it will reveal no discrepancies. If there `is` a discrepancy, try printing a page or two of this manual with that feature enabled. (Make sure your printer panel switch is set to draft/programmable.) For instance, my brother's Gemini Star, SG-10, even when dip-switched to Epson-compatible mode, has three non-Epson codes. NLQ is 27/52, italic is 27/73/1, and italic-off is 27/73/0. If you own a Gemini Star, use the P)itch setting of NLQ on the first menu before printing, and you may as well set ~L~)eft Margin to 5. If the print- ing comes out in italic instead of NLQ, your Star is like my brother's; press any key to abort. Now return to the second menu then press ~N~ and enter 27/52 as the new NLQ code, then press ~G~ and ~H~ to enter the new italic -on and -off codes. Printing a few lines of the manual in NLQ should now show NLQ and in a non-NLQ font the italic toggles should work (see section 10 below). NLQ seems to be a non-standard code item in otherwise-Epson-compatible machines. Even among Epsons there are differences: the LQ series use 27/120/1 for NLQ. Simply entering these three codes solves the problem for the Star. In other cases the problem may remain. Many printers simply handle printer-codes differently from the Epson standard. For example - to consider another sore-spot - some printers require that the pica pitch code be sent before switching from any one pitch to any other pitch (since it doesn't hurt, Prim does this in all cases). For another, some printers will turn off small-pitch printing when using bolded printing. Most handle the combination of double-strike and small pitches, so Prim uses double-strike instead of emphasized in conjunc- tion with elite, compressed, and miniscule. To obtain darker headers and footers (or if you have a ProPrinter, which has no double-strike) it is worth trying emphasized with these smaller pitches. Simply drop down to the second menu with PgDn, select the ~I~ for doublestrike; then enter the same code as appears in box ~K~ for emph- asized. Next, repeat this process, copying the emphasized-off code into the doublestrike-off box. Try printing a few lines of the manual again with a header or footer selected as well as elite or compressed. If you like what you see, then be sure to save these settings when you exit (or before with F2). Which brings us to our next topic - ` 5.8. Saving Settings ` Prim used to be very simple! Now after months of helpful criticism from my `well-meaning` brother it has lots of powerful goodies, which the poor neophyte has to figure out how to use. One of these goodies is its ability to save your settings or to use the current jargon: to clone itself. Cloning Prim can be as simple as pressing F2. If you are using a 1.X or 2.X version of DOS, a second step is re- quired: Prim needs to know where to find itself. Hard-disk users will know to enter the full path; floppy users to enter the drive and colon. Both should complete the entry with the name you are using for Prim if not Prim. (Some users change a program's name for one of several rea- sons; for instance, many will rename Prim.com to P.com.) Once you've typed in the path and name and pressed enter, Prim checks to see if it can find itself, and if so rewrites itself to disk. Doing so causes Prim to remember the menu choices you have made and which appear on the screen. (The exceptions are the name of the file you may have chosen to print, any heading you may have entered, and the active/inactive status of your font toggles. If more than one user is accessing Prim on the same hard-disk com- puter, it may prove worth the extra storage space to have different copies of Prim, each with a different name, and each cloned to the favorite settings of the different users. It would be possible to make Prim able to save multiple settings - it remains to be seen whether enough users think this is worth making it bigger for. * * * * This concludes the section on using Prim from the Menu front-end. A terser, often speedier way to use Prim is directly from the DOS prompt, by-passing the menu screens altogether. Beginners should probably skip section 6 and drop down to 7, which returns to general interest topics. ~ 6. COMMAND-LINE USE ~ For hot-rodders Prim provides the ability to enter commands at the DOS prompt. The general form for this way of using Prim is: ~A>prim <File-mask-or-name> optional flags optional title~ Type prim, space, name or mask of files to print, space, type in any one-letter flags, separating each with a space, then hit enter. Use upper or lower case as desired. [See Section 6.2. for examples.] Or type prim plus a question mark (?) then press enter to receive a short help screen for using Prim in this fashion. ` 6.1. Command-line Flags ` When no flags are entered after a file name or mask, Prim prints ac- cording to the settings which may be viewed and changed from the menu (see section 5). Flags are used for three purposes: to make a temporary setting-change, to specify a header or footer option, or to activate toggles. Thus, if the menu shows pica as the currently active pitch setting, to temporarily print in compressed from the command line, the ~C~ flag must follow the file name or mask. Here is a table of Prim's grab-bag of flags: ~1. Pitch Flags~ (one only per command): ~P~ - for ~P~ica pitch [10 characters-per-inch]: ~Q~ - for ~Q~uality (NLQ) font [10 cpi] ~E~ - for ~E~lite pitch [12 cpi] (default setting): ~C~ - for ~C~ompressed pitch [17 cpi]: ~M~ - for ~M~iniscule pitch [17 cpi] (subscript+compressed): ~2. Page Lay-out Flags~ (use any number per command): (substitute from one to three digits for ~ddd~s in the list below.) ~L~ddd - ~L~eft margin of ddd length (suggest ddd be even) ~U~ddd - ~U~pper margin of ddd columns ~B~ddd - ~B~ottom margin of ddd columns ~W~ddd - ~W~idth of paper in tenths of an inch ~D~ddd - ~D~epth of paper in tenths of an inch ~S~ddd - for line ~S~pacing of ddd lines-per-inch (use a value which evenly divides your line- spacing code's value.) ~N~ddd - to change initial page ~N~umber to ddd (careful combining this with file masks!) ~3. Header/Title/Footer Flags~ (one only per command): ~F~ - gives a ~F~ancy footer line (includes file name, page number, and date) ~#~ - gives only a page number as footer ~I~ - tells printer to ~I~gnore perforations (some text files contain their own page breaks) ~T~ or ~H~ - for Header/Title to appear in bold on top of page ~ - H OR T MUST BE THE LAST FLAG - ~ (~H~ puts the header on each page; ~T~ only on the 1st page. All characters following to the end of the line on your monitor will be centered, bolded, and mounted atop a page of the print-out. If nothing follows the ~T~ or ~H~ then the file name will be used.) ~4. Odd-job Flags:~ ~1 - 5~ - toggle fonts (See section 9, below) ~X~ - causes Prim to start and exit without resetting printer ~Z~ - causes printer to slash all ~Z~eroes. * * * ~Use W85 to print with letter-sized paper on wide-carriage printers.~ ` 6.2. Command-line Examples: ` (Example 6.1.) ~prim mynotes.doc c s6 tOutline of Sin Under the Sun~ The first example prints one file from the current directory, named &mynotes.doc&. The ~c~ flag will cause it to appear in compressed pitch; the ~s6~ sets the line-spacing to the normal 6 per inch; and the ~t~ in- structs Prim to show the phrase "Outline of Sin Under the Sun" on top of the first page only, as the title (in bold). No footer has been specified so none will be printed. All other values will default to those last saved from the menu screens. (Example 6.2.) ~prim B:\turbo\job*.pas p l8 w140 z # h~ This second example provides for the printing of all files on the B drive in the sub-directory named &turbo& which start with the first three letters: "job" and end with the extension: "pas". The ~p~ and ~l~ flags provide for pica pitch with a left margin of 8. The paper ~w~idth is 14 inches; zeros will be slashed; the page number only will appear (in bold) at the bottom of each page as a footer, and the name of each file in the series will be bolded at the top of each page as a header. (Example 6.3.) ~PRIM A:*.BAS Q I L20 D100~ The third example prints all files ending with .bas on the disk in drive A. The ~Q~ flag causes the use of the near-letter-quality font; the ~I~ flag means that the page perforations will not be skipped over. The ~L20~ flag sets the left margin to 20 (which is quite large for the 10 characters per inch of NLQ printing); the ~D100~ flag tells Prim that the paper is only 10 inches long. ~ 7. HOW TO STOP PRINTING ~ While Prim's status report is rolling along, spinning out new line numbers and page numbers it will pause to offer an Exit menu any time you press a key. Unfortunately, Prim may be far ahead of the printer by the time you realize a mistake, so all you can do is choose ~A~ to abort then turn off your printer to minimize your loses. ~ 8. WHY NO RIGHT MARGIN SETTING? ~ ASCII text files have carriage returns at the right end of every line. If a right margin were specified, Prim would have to reformat the text, removing its built-in carriage returns and forcing new ones. This exceeds the authority of a printer utility. Narrow-carriage printers force a new line at the 80th column; wide ones at the 135th. If the line length (+ left margin) exceeds these limits, the printer will chop off that line then print the remainder as an unsightly tag-along on the next line. By allowing you the use of elite and compressed pitches, Prim allows you to prevent this occurrence for all but the most unusual text files. ~ 9. ALLOWING R)ESETS ~ One of the inconsistencies between printer manufacturers is whether or not a reset code has been included in a printer's code-set. Resets clear the printer's memory of all print-codes, such as margin settings, line-spacing, etc, and restore the printer to the default draft/pica/ 6 LPI state it powers-up to. Therefore Prim would like to make use of this feature to spare you a little thought before you start to print, whether the printer needs to be re-started; and after you've finished, whether to clear the printer for the next job. If your machine, like the IBM ProPrinter, has no resets; then you must disable resets perman- ently. If you wish to leave the settings in the printer after your job for any reason, disable the resets temporarily (without saving). ~ 10. USING THE FONT TOGGLES: ~ >>-Toggles->>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> (1) ~Super~[^^] (2) ~Sub~[@@] (3) ~Bold~[~~] (4) ~Undln~[&&] (5) ~Italic~[``] The font toggles allow you to mark off a bit of text in a document and print it out in either superscript, subscript, bolded, underlined or italic characters. If you printed this manual previously according to the method shown in section 3 above, then you already have a lav- ishly illustrated sample of font toggling. Occasionally, when working with a text editor (such as the sterling Share-Ware &QED&^2^) to generate a document of some sort, it may be de- sirable to take fuller advantage of the printer's resources. For ex- ample, one possible use of the subscript/superscript combination would be in writing algebraic expressions, for instance: (Example 10.1.) ~Force@radial@ = ^Torque^/@2xi@~. A font toggle is simply any character appearing in a text which Prim has been notified to be on the alert for. We'll see how to alert Prim in a second, but for the moment let's suppose that Prim has been told to be on the look-out for the caret sign as a superscript toggle. The first time Prim finds the caret character in the document being print- ed it does `not` print the caret. Instead it starts printing any char- racters following the caret in superscript mode until it comes to an- other caret. The second caret is not printed; instead superscript mode printing is turned off. In Example 1.2. above the word "Torque" is converted to superscript by the carets which enclose it. Prim keeps switching back and forth from superscript-on to superscript-off each time it finds a caret. . .and prints none of them. Therefore, the definition of a font toggle is: `a character which is not printed but which changes the font of any characters which follow it.` If you've printed this document with the font toggles, you see how the at-sign and caret characters are translated into script changes and the multitude of tildes into bold, etc. The default settings are: 1. caret = ^superscript^ 2. at-sign = @subscript@ 3. tilde = ~bold~ 4. ampersand = &underline& 5. left-quote = `italic` The actual process of invoking these toggles is as simple as press- ing the appropriate number on the main Prim menu and press ~A~ for ~A~)ct- ivate. Or from the command line add the appropriate numbers as flags. A separate file, TogTest.doc, accompanies this manual; you may one to try printing it with all toggles enabled to check your understanding of toggles and your printer's capacity for combining all these fonts. Most printers will fail to manage all the toggle fonts when combined with NLQ. Since there may be a time when you wish to use, for example, bolding in a document but also need to have the tilde appear as a printable character, you may change the default settings for the number flags. If the document contains no underscores (_) then the underscore will make a suitable toggle in place of the tilde. From the menu again press the number of the appropriate toggle (~3~ for bold) but now choose ~R~ to ~R~e)- define. Prim prompts you for a new character to toggle bolding with; press the character desired - in this case the underscore. The Bold option is highlighted to confirm that the bold toggle has been activa- ted, and the little box following the word Bold contains the new under- score toggle. From the command-line simply use a number flag followed (with no space) by a character: the character following the ~1~ flag will cause superscripting; the character following the ~2~ flag, subscripting; etc. (Example 10.2.) ~prim SomeFile 1$ 2* 3#~ this sets the superscript toggle to $, the subscript toggle to *, and the bold toggle to #, as in the menu example. Whenever Prim finds a pair of percent signs in SomeFile, it will turn anything between them into subscripted text. ~ 11. MORE ON LINE SPACING ~ Normal printer line-spacing is 6 lines to the inch, which corresponds to normal single-spacing on a typewriter. Changing this function to some number of lines-per-inch may only involve pressing ~S~ on the main menu and entering a new number. Prim comes with the most common line-spacing control code implement- ed: 27/51, decimal, which allows any line-spacing number which can be evenly divided into 216. Another common code is 27/65, which allows line-spacing values which evenly divide 72. Both codes allow 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, and 12 lines per inch. Any of these values can be entered from the ~S~ first-page menu option. Command-line users will simply use an ~S~ flag followed immediately by one of the above numbers. In other words, the flag ~s4~ would activate 4 lines-per-inch spacing. Of course, it is possible that your printer makes use of neither of these two line-spacing values. In that case you would enter the code which is supported by your printer and use line-spacing values which divide it's fraction of an inch figure evenly. ~ 12. TYPING-THROUGH WITH PRIM ~ To use your printer as a typewriter for printing labels or envel- opes or filling in forms, you don't need anything but Prim and DOS: 1. Using either the menu or the command line give Prim the special file name CON. 2. Add any menu options (or flags from the command-line) you wish to use - for example ~E~ for elite pitch. 3. If using the menu, press End to send your set-up to the printer. 4. At the DOS prompt enter ~TYPE CON > PRN~ and press enter. Any text you type now will appear on your screen; when you press enter that line of text is sent to the printer. (Of course this may be a little awkward for filling in multiple boxes on the same line of a printed form.) 5. To finish press F6 (from DOS) or Ctrl-Z. ~ 13. FURTHER SUGGESTIONS ~ 1. To allow use of your computer for other tasks while printing pro- ceeds: install a print spooler utility in your autoexec.bat. Many people don't like spoolers because early spoolers (like DOS's &Print&) were unable to permit aborting a print-job once it was started. Check your local BBS for something more recent if you have one of those. 2. With a faint ribbon you may want to insert a bold toggle at the be- ginning of a document and choose option 3 from the menu or include the number ~3~ among the flags. This will double-strike the entire file. 3. Programmers: use the bold or underline toggles within comment lines; especially where comments are used to mark off groups of code. 4. Once you have experimented with Prim to determine the combination of printer options which most suits your needs, combine batch files and Prim flags to save setting up for each job. For example, Code.bat might be used for printing programs and Doc.bat for printing other text files: (Example 12.1. - DOS file Code.bat:) ~prim %1 c s8 l15 u2 b2z f t%2~ (Example 12.2. - DOS file Doc.bat:) ~prim %1 q s6 l5 u5 b5 n%3 # h%2~ where the %1s, %2s, and %3 represent values passed to the batch files - for example, enter: (Example 12.2.1.) ~code letter.doc LETTER TO PLAINTIFF~ at the DOS prompt to use Code.bat to print a file called letter.doc with the header `LETTER TO PLAINTIFF`. Notice that the missing %3 will simply cause Prim to use the default page number of 1. Using the menu is helpful when beginning to explore Prim or when faced with an unusual printing task; for routine print situations batch files plus command-line flags is the most efficient method to invoke Prim. Notice, however, that the flags in your batch command-line must provide for all settings: what is default today may not be default tomorrow. 5. To produce hard-copy of multiple brief documents such as E-mail letters, first chain them together using the DOS COPY command: (Example 12.4.) ~COPY MAR01.LET+MAR10.LET+MAR26.LET ALL-MAR.LET.~ The major advantage of this is saving paper but it also cleans up the floppy or hard disk directory. ~ 14. USING PRIM WITH THE GEMINI STAR ~ Generally, the Star will work well with Prim; certain printer code changes may be required, however. For the SG-10 the following changes on the second menu are needed (check your manual to verify these codes if you have a different Gemini model): ~G.~ Italics needs to be changes to 27/73/1 ~H.~ Italics off should be changed to 27/73/0 ~N.~ NLQ should be changed to 27/52. These changes will enable most Prim functions. See section 5.7 for details on making these changes. The only font toggle which will work in NLQ mode on the SG-10 is underline. ~ 15. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ~ The author wishes to gratefully acknowledge his use of the follow- ing masterly code, downloaded from CompuServe's Borland SIG: - Randy Forgaard's Config.pas for cloning. - Keith Chuvala's Display.pas for fast-screens. - Garry J. Vass's PrStat.inc for printer-status checking. - and from Borland's ~Turbo Tutor~: QDL.pas by Bruce Webster. ~ 16. PRIM PRINTER UTILITY - TERMS AND CONDITIONS ~ ` 1. Distribution ` Prim and manual are marketed under the Share-Ware concept. This means that computer bulletin boards and sharing among friends are used as channels for software distribution. It does `not` mean that Share-Ware software may be used without purchase. Share-Ware allows you to try before your buy, and reduces the cost to you of software by elimating the expense of packaging and advertising. If you find yourself continuing to use Prim after a month or two, please pay. The fee is modest considering the months of labour it purchases. Prim may ¬& be distributed in any fashion which adds a further cost to the user, such as disk mail-ordering, unless the user is specifically pre-notified of his obligation to pay Prim's author (me!) as well. ` 2. Payment ` Prim costs $7.50 for individual use and $25 plus $1 per workstation for site licensing. This price is low even for Share-Ware! As Borland International so dramatically demonstrated with Turbo Pascal, many people buying a product at a low price can be as profitable as fewer buying at a higher price. Thousands of computer-users who otherwise would have used a pirate copy of Turbo purchased instead, benefiting themselves, Borland, and the entire industry. By paying a mere $7.50 for Prim, you cast your vote for Share-Ware prices affordable to the hobbyist and the student. Be assured the other Share-Ware programmers will be noting your response. ` 3. Warranty and Support ` Because of the modesty of this fee and your ability to try Prim be- fore you buy, no warranty or guarantee, express or implied, is made for this product nor is any product-support implicit in the purchase agreement. I will, however, attempt to respond to product-support questions from purchasers of Prim, addressed via CompuServe, #73537,1647, or the addresses below. ========================================================================= ~ 17. PRIM PRINTER UTILITY - ORDER FORM ~ ~ - U.S.A. - ~ ~ - Canada - ~ Ray Cotton Dale Cotton 88 Paw Paw Lake Drive 45 Northcliffe Blvd #4 Chagrin Falls, Ohio, Toronto, Ontario 44022, U.S.A. M6H 3G9, Canada ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ Product ----- - Qty - -- Price -- --- Sub --- 1. ~Prim~. . . . . . . . . _______ $7.50 = $__________ 2. ~Prim~ (site license) . _______ $25 + $1 per w-stn = $__________ 3. ~PrintSay~^3^ . . . . . . _______ $7.50 = $__________ 4. ~PrintSay~ (site lic.). _______ $25 + $1 per w-stn = $__________ Ohio/Ontario Residents 7% sales tax = $__________ Total Enclosed = $__________ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Name:____________________________________________ Phone:________________ Address:________________________________________________________________ Address:________________________________________________________________ Address:________________________________________________________________ * * * * With the payment enclosed I represent that I have used this product for 30 days and have found it satisfactory. I understand that it is provided without warranty or guarantee, either express or implied. ========================================================================= * * * * ^1^ &List& (c) Vernon D. Buerg, 456 Lakeshire, Daly City, CA 94015. ^2^ &QED& (c) SemWare, 136 Mark Lane, Smyrna, Ga. 30080. ^3^ &PrintSay& is a report-writing code-generator for dBASE III and III Plus. Like Prim it allows the use of advanced printer controls. Unlike other report generators, it produces actual dBASE code, which can be further customized by the user.