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Text File | 1986-11-20 | 13.0 KB | 249 lines

SpTil A MutantWare Production Sptil is a multi-process file select print utility, and consists of two separate files; Sptil - the editor and Spl - the writer. The object of the game is to select files to print, assign the various attributes for printing, and then copy them to a queue for the writer to output to the printer. After the files have been placed in the queue the editor may be opened and closed as required to perform any necessary maintainance. And it goes like this... (1) Start Spitil, either from CLI or Workbench its your choice as usual. After the windows open the first time, you will experience a delay as AmigaDOS loads the necessary printer stuff. This only happens once per session, the really bad part is there is no easy way to get rid of it so it eats appx 35k of memory by leaving the "printer.device" task running. But then again its no different than copying something to PRT:. (2) Assign Spool-Que residency. Using the drive gadgets in the right window locate the appropriate drive and path for the Que to reside. Use the Control Spool-Que menu item to assign the Que residence. The obvious choice for this is RAM: however any drive will do. Assigning the Que creates a directory named Spool-Que which will contain the spool files. (3) Assign the various printing attributes by using the PRINT menu item. These attributes include Quality or Draft mode, characters per inch, and how the file is to be formatted. Select Format off if your file(s) are already paginated, or you don't want to skip page breaks. If Format is left on, you may select a Form using the Form menu subitem. See the description below for detail. Once your selections are complete, you may copy files to the queue. All files copied will be printed with the selected attributes. If you like, you may change attributes for each file copied. (4) Select the files to print in the left window then hit the copy gadcget at the top. The program currently does not support priorities so if you are concerned about the order they print in, I suggest you copy one at a time. Once in the Que they will print in first in, first out order. If the Spool-Writer is ON the first file will start printing as soon as it hits the queue. (5) Print attributes may be changed at any time. Use the Control menu item to Edit Spool Files. Place the file on Hold using the same menu, to prevent it from printing while you edit. An edit window will open allowing the print attributes to be changed. The number of copies can be changed as well. The print attributes (including Hold status) are not actually changed until the Edit Next or the close window gadget is selected. If the file you are editing is printing, it should be placed on Hold first, then reselected before you begin editing. (6) Forms allow you to specify how the file should be output to the printer. The spool writer will skip page breaks, print headings and footings, and supports margins and variable tab stops. A variety of paper sizes, including pre-printed forms can be accomodated by setting lines per inch and page length. Forms are stored on disk and may be individually selected for each file to be printed. Keep this in mind if you are tempted to remove your SpTil disk. Forms are selected in the same manner as the other print attributes. If you use the Form Select subitem in the Print menu, the avaiable Forms will be displayed for selection. The Form may also be set by using the Edit Spool Files subitem in the Control menu. You must manually (ugh!) type in the file name to select the form file. Your success will depend on your memory and typing skills, but this is a handy short-cut if you want a special Form for one file out of a group. If the named Form file cannot be found, the default Form will be used, without notification. Don't worry, it really is a nice Form. SpTil will create a subdirectory called Forms. This directory will be located in the same directory where SpTil resides, and should not be moved, altered, spindled, folded or mutilated. A default Form will be created and placed in (of all places) the Forms directory. The Forms Editor is used to modify or create new Forms. Use the Edit Forms subitem in the Print menu. The Forms Editor has it's own menus, and no small number of gadgets. These are used to specify your form. A new Form may be created by simply changing the Form File Name. Change any values you wish and then select Edit Next or the close window gadget to save your Form. You may cancel your edits by clearing the Form File Name before you exit. The Delete item in the Forms menu will delete the Form file named above the edit window. This will be the last file you selected to edit and not necessarily the name in the Form File gadget, if you changed it. Got that? The Spool Writer supports special characters in the headings and footings. The sequence .f will be replaced by the file name. A .d will be replaced by the date and .p will produce the current page number. Refer to the values shown in the default Form file. Note that headings and footings do not obey the normal laws governing left and right margins. If you want your headings to line up with the margin, you must insert an appropriate number of spaces in the heading itself. Form Gadgets 1) Name - Form file name = any legal name 2) Lines - Maximum physical lines per page 3) Chars - Maximun physical characters per line 4) LMarg - Left margin 5) RMarg - Right margin 6) Tab - Number of spaces to expand tab to 7) First - Location of first line to print excluding heading 8) Last - Location of last line to print excluding footing 9) Head - Location of Heading line 10) Foot - Location of Footing Line 11) Head - Heading string 12) Foot - Footing string (6) Remove Spool-Writer process with Control Spool Writer menu subitem when finished. Close editor via either menu item or close gadget. (7) Send cash, check or money order to authors. The Menus (1) Control (a) Spool Writer Stop - Can stop while printing. Will not send form feed so you can restart at same location. Start - What it is... Remove - Cannot remove while spool files exist. Either print or delete them. (b) Spool Files Hold - Select for files to be placed in queue with HOLD status ON. Files on HOLD will reside in queue but will not print. Release- Opposite of above. Edit - Opens EDIT window to verify and change print attributes. (c) Spool-Que Assign - Assigns Que residency after location with drive gadgets if necessary. Select - Removes existing Que and allows subsequent relocation and assignment. Cannot be done if files exist in queue. (d) ...About Aint to proud to beg. (e) Quit Remove editor only. (2) Print (a) Format ON - Paginate with headings and footings. OFF - Print as is without page breaks. (b) Quality ON - Near letter quality if you got it. OFF - For the normal people. (c) C.P.I. Pica - 10 characters per inch. Elite - 12 characters per inch. Condensed - Condensed mode ( 15-17 cpi ). (d) Forms Select - Select a Form from the Que window. Edit - Modify or Create Forms. (e) Delete Use to remove files in Spool-Que. Cannot delete a file while it is printing. If this is required STOP writer first then EDIT the file and place on HOLD. After closing the edit window you may then DELETE the file. (3) Source (a) Select All Selects all files in source window. (b) Clear All Undoes the above in case you screwed-up. (c) File Info Size - Displays file size. Date - Displays file dates. Time - Displays file times. (d) View Source - View the source before you spool it. Spool-Que - View the Spool Files. Misc info Clicking on the Spool-Que window without selecting a file will update the Que window display with what is really there. Upcomming Attractions (1) Priorities - Print in prioritized order. (2) Que All - Interception and queueing of ALL output to printer. (3) Restart - Restart printing of file on any page. How It Works For Those That Really Give A !$@# Using the AmigaDos calls CreateProcess and LoadSeg, Sptil creates a child process the Spool Writer. It then sets up a system of messages and ports to keep each other abreast of the current state of affairs. While alive the Writer mindlessly searches for the next available file to print, and like a good child does what its parent ( the Editor ) tells it to do. After months of fighting with the printer.device; this release works via PRT: the printer handler. The problem with the printer.device is that it seems to have a mind of its own and will not consistantly control the printer. PRT: and its associated escape sequences seem to never fail. Unfortunatly IO is handled via Lattice fcalls and does not task very well thereby causing some response delays at times. Exec IO requests handles this more effeciently however sometimes they just dont work in the same place where they just did work. I may be ignorant but not stupid. Anyway I am still working on an acceptable solution and hope this works in the interim. Best wishes and happy Sptiling, Mark Gault REVISIONS: 1.0 - 6/87 Beta test version 1.2 - 8/27 No comments from world on v-1.0 so I assume it works. 1) Limited number of files in queue to 50 in order to save memory. 2) Spl closes parasitic window so graciously provided by _main() and opens its own for a snazzier display. 3) Now counts down pages left to print is Spool Writer window. 4) Has a real On/Off indicator for the Spool Writer. 5) Forms - Just a tease, creates & edits form definitions but alas Spool Writer does not utilize them yet. Forms directory is created as a sub-directory of wherever Sptil resides. 2.0 - 9/87 /* Beta test version - keep water bucket handy */ 1) Forms for your every need. Because of the numerous combinations of printing available through the Forms Editor not all has been tested as of this date but all that has works. Its big but its FUN. Send feedback to addresses listed. Remember If you don't bitch it won't get fixed, 'cause it works on my printer and I can't see yours from here. meg 2.1 - 9/27 1) Various buglets squashed. 2) View now supports horizontal scrolling for line over runs. 3) A new executable support file has been added courtesy of Dan Franki. Named KillSpl, its purpose in life is to unmercifully terminate the Spl process and make life easier by allowing the operator to remove the Spool Writer after printing without having to open SpTil. Made for the lazy at heart this program is not required, only extremely convenient.