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Saxman Software Tools Disk Series Program: TDPRT Version: 2.2 11/15/87 Purpose: Print one or more files Syntax: TDPRT [ filespec ... ] [ ( options ] Or: TDPRT [ filespec ... ] [ /options ] Author: Jim Standley, Saxman Software Language: TURBO Pascal Overview TDPRT is an enhanced PRINT command. It will print text files with control over page format and printer features. Here are the special optional features of TDPRT: Search path like DOS searches for programs. Multiple filespecs, Globals, & Wildcards. Default heading, user heading, or none. Optional ruler line on each page. Skip over perforation on or off. Printer fonts & other options. Six or eight Lines Per Inch. Three user defined printer options. Line numbers. Page numbers. Print a range of lines. Print a range of pages. Wrap or truncate long lines. Form length in inches. Form width in characters. Left margin in characters. Change tab width. Form feeds are handled. Redirection to disk. Add disk output to DOS print queue. Customize option defaults. Customize printer escape sequences. Printer compatibility: TDPRT sends escape sequences to the printer for print mode and lines-per-inch options. Values for these, and three user-defined printer setup strings, can be modified on a permanent basis to "install" the program for a given printer. If you configure TDPRT for another printer, send me the setup strings you use so I can add them to future releases of this document. Other printers could be added in options similar to the "FX" and "NECP3" options. Spooler Compatibility With Release 2.2 TDPRT uses BIOS interrupt 17(hex) to send output to the printer. It is my understanding that most spooler programs should intercept this interrupt and correctly send the output to the spooler buffer. I would like to know if you find spoolers that have difficulty or will not work with TDPRT. Running TDPRT: All options for TDPRT are given on the command line. The only interactive part of the program is printer setup string configuration. TDPRT recognizes two slightly different forms of command line syntax: TDPRT [ filespec ... ] [ ( option ... ] TDPRT [ filespec ... ] [ /option ... ] Examples: TDPRT MY.PAS ( compressed margin 10 width 96 numbers TDPRT MY.PAS /compressed /margin 10 /width 96 /numbers You can pause the program at any time by pressing any key. It will give you the option to abort printing or continue. Filespec: At least one file specification is required. You can give up to ten. For each one: If it contains a drive letter or directory name (a colon or a backslash) only the specified drive or directory will be searched for the file. If it contains global or wildcard characters (asterisk or question mark) only the current directory or specified directory will be searched. If the filespec does not contain any of those special things, TDPRT will search the current directory then each directory in the path. Examples: FRED.PAS - Path Searching ON *.PAS - Path Searching OFF current dir only C:\FRED.PAS - Path Searching OFF C:\ only Prior to version 2.2 there was a bug when the filespec included a drive or path and a global or wildcard. With version 2.2 or later, this will work: TDPRT C:\ANOTHER\SUBDIR\*.* Option overview: Syntax format 1 is patterned after IBM's VM/CMS. Options are given after an open paren. Anything before the paren is the filespec list and anything after is the option list. Options are all keywords, some with associated values following them. The keywords are self-descriptive and easy to remember. Format 2 is more common to DOS applications. Each option is given with a slash. As with format 1, all filespecs must be given before the first option. You don't need any slash options before a quoted title. The following rules about minimum truncations are the same with either format. Here are all the options in alpha order (except user-defined options which are last.) The shortest valid abbreviations are in caps. Shortest abbreviation was derived by putting them in the order shown below and seeing how many letters are needed to tell each from the one before it. When you're learning, you may feel more comfortable typing in the whole word. When you're more proficient you can save some time by abbreviating. As a matter of style, I always code the full keyword in BATCH files. Compressed - Compressed print mode. DOS - Add disk output to DOS queue. DOUble - Double strike print mode. Elite - Elite print mode. EMphasized - Emphasized print mode. Formlength nn - Form length in inches, decimal fractions. FROMLine - Starting line of input to be printed. FROMPage - Starting page of ouptut to be printed. FX - Set escape sequences for Epson FX. Header - Enable standard page header Italic - Italic print mode. Length nn - Exactly like formlength. LInenumber - Line numbers down left side of page. LPi n - Six or eight LPI. Margin nn - Left margin width in characters. Necp3 - Set escape sequences for NEC P3. NODos - Do not use DOS print queue. NUmbers - Exactly like LInenumber. Pathsearch - Enable path searching PAgenum - Forces page numbers on user heading. PIca - Pica print mode. Cancels Elite. PRoportional - Proportional print mode. RUler - Scale line on each page. SCale - Scale line on each page. SOp - Enable skip over perforation. STandard - Reset to 'factory specs'. Tofile filespec - Redirect output to a file. TOLine - Ending line of input to be printed. TOPage - Ending page of output to be printed. TAbwidth nn - Change tab width TRuncate - Truncate long input lines. Userheader - TDPRT will prompt for a user heading. Width nn - Form width in characters. WRap - Split long input lines into two or more. P1 - User print setup string #1. P2 - User print setup string #2. P3 - User print setup string #3. 'header' - A user header can be entered on the command. "header" line. Enclose it in apostrophes or double quotes. The following options can be given with prefix 'NO' to unset them: COMPRESSED DOS DOUBLE ELITE EMPHASIZED HEADER ITALIC NUMBERS PAGENUM PATHSEARCH PICA PROPORTIONAL RULER SCALE SOP WRAP. Also, user defined keyword options P1, P2 and P3 can be deselected with NO. If opposing options are given, the last one on the command line is used. For example, if you give "WRAP TRUNC" then WRAP will be overridden and TRUNC will be used. If invalid options or combinations of options are given, the program will display an error message, the options given on the command line, and the values of all options with command line overrides. Modifying defaults I created the program with the options I prefer. You can reset the program to this arbitrary standard with the "STANDARD" keyword. To view my defaults, enter "TDPRT ( STANDARD QUERY". If you want to make these your defaults, keep reading. The following keyword options are given without a filespec to view or modify default values. If you give a filespec with these options, it is ignored. These do not print anything. Query - Display current option values. Set - Entered with options, saves those options as new defaults. SAve - Same as Set CONfigure - View and modify printer control strings. The program file "TDPRT.COM" must be in the current directory or in a directory in the path for SAVE and CONFIGURE options. It uses the DOS rules for path searching for the COM file to modify, even if you invoke it from another drive or directory on the command line. Examples: TDPRT ( QUERY TDPRT ( LPI 8 MARGIN 10 COMPRESSED NUMBERS SAVE TDPRT ( CONFIGURE Bad examples: C>A:TDPRT ( CON - Won't work unless A: is in path \NOTNPATH\TDPRT ( CON - You can tell DOS what directory a program is in with 3.0+. Bad idea with Save/Configure. Some Option Details: LENGTH / FORMLENGTH nn - Give the form length in inches with these keywords. The program knows how many lines per inch it is printing and works out lines per page from there. For example "FO 8.5" for 8 1/2 inch paper. Maximum lines per page is 255 lines. MARGIN nn - Give a number of characters for left margin. You might use this to center compressed printing on the page or provide room for hole-punching. See WIDTH. WIDTH nn - Give the form width in characters. This is the right-most column that TDPRT will print. Subtract the margin and the size of line numbers (6) to get the number of characters that can be printed on a line. For example, with "WIDTH 80 MARGIN 10 NUMBERS" TDPRT will truncate or wrap after 64 characters of input. (80 - 10 - 6 = 64). HEADERS - The default header is the filename and page number. The option NOPAGENUM will leave the filename in the header but turn off the page number. The option NOHEADER turns off the header completely. There are two ways to give a user-defined header. The first is the option UHEADER. If this option is given, the program will prompt for a header. The second way is to enter the user header on the command line, enclosed in single or double quotes. The close quote is not needed if this is the last thing on the command line. Either way you give a user header, you can tell TDPRT to put the file name in the header by giving "/f" as the first two characters. You can inlude the page by giving "/p" as the last two characters. If you want page numbers but no filename, just enter "/p". Example: TDPRT *.PAS ( '/f My PASCAL Files /p' TDPRT *.PAS ( "/p" - page numbers only TDPRT *.PAS ( '/f' - file names only TOFILE and DOS. The TOFILE option names a file to be used for output. You can use the other TURBO Pascal standard devices here, for example "TOFILE CON:". If you are running a compatible version of DOS 3.0+, and you have already installed the resident portion of PRINT, you can use the DOS option to put the disk file into the DOS print queue. If you look at the output file, depending on the program you use, it may appear to have one extra line. This line contains the reset string. It is written without carriage return and line feed, so it will not print as an extra line. Some editors may add the carriage return and line feed if you save the file. FROMLINE-TOLINE or FROMPAGE-TOPAGE. These options can be used to print a selected portion of a file. The LINE options refer to line numbers in the input file. For example, use this to print part of a program for reference with a debugger that requires line numbers. The PAGE options refer to page numbers in the output. This might be used to reprint pages which were eaten by the printer. You can give FROM or TO without the other, but you cannot mix LINE and PAGE ranges. PRINT MODES. All selected setup strings except RESET are sent before the first file is printed. Either LPI 6 or LPI 8 is always selected. The RESET string is always sent after the last file is printed or the program is halted. It should cancel all the others. Prior to version 2.0 you could not deselect print mode options which were set as your personal defaults. As of version 2.0, you can singly deselect any print mode option with the NO prefix, for example: NOELITE. Also, the keyword PICA was added, which is identical to NOELITE. Setup strings can be set to "null". It is an error if a null string is selected on the command line. Printer Configuration. The option CONFIGURE enters configuration mode. Printer mode options (COMPRESSED, ELITE, DOUBLE, EMPHASIZED, ITALIC, LPI n, PROPORTIONAL, P1-P3 and RESET) send hardware-specific escape sequences to the printer. These are all the escape codes used by TDPRT; no other options send any special codes. TDPRT was written for Epson FX series printers, but can be configured for any printer. The FX option on the command line resets all escape sequences for Epson FX printers. Each sequence can be up to 25 bytes long. Use P1-P3 to enter additional setup strings for your own needs. The Configure option brings up a screen listing the setup strings. You select one for modification. TDPRT will display it in decimal-ASCII and in character, and let you type in a new one. Just press enter to keep the old one, type "null" in lower case to delete the string. (Yes, this precludes having a printer setup string of "null"; a chance I'll take.) Here's how to enter a new string. To enter a decimal ASCII code, type slash and three digits. For example, escape is /027. To enter a character, just type the character. For example, Proportional mode is escape "p1", or "/027p1". To enter a slash character, type two slashes "//". Here are the setup strings for Epson FX series printers. Letters must be entered in upper and lower case as shown. Compressed /015 Double /027G Elite /027M Emphasized /027E Italic /0274 Proportional /027p1 Six LPI /0272 Eight LPI /0270 Reset /018/027H/027P/027F/0275/0272/027p0 Here are the setup strings for NEC P3 and compatible printers Compressed /027?7 Double /027G Elite /027?3 Emphasized /027?1 Italic null Proportional /027?5 Six LPI /0272 Eight LPI /0270 NLQPICA /027?2 NLQELITE /027?4 NLQPROP /027?6 Reset /018/027H/0272/027?0 I didn't use the Epson Master Reset sequence to reset the Epson as this cancels any other things you might have sent to the printer, such as downloaded fonts, form lengths, etc. Remember, the strings you see on the Configure screen are the only escape sequences sent to the printer. If you've been wondering if TDPRT used special printer commands to control margins or line width or anything else, the answer is NO. You could certainly add any kind of printer commands you like to the setup strings. You can modify the names of the user-defined printer strings and use the new names on the command line. For example, if your printer has a Near Letter Quality mode you might rename P1 as "NLQ". Don't put any spaces in the name. Your new name replaces the old in the parsing routine; it must not duplicate any other option keywords, and you must enter enough letters on the command line to distinguish it from the other keywords. You can use 'NO' with your own options, for example 'NONLQ'. Tabs TDPRT expands tab characters before checking line length for WRAP or TRUNCATE. Tabs are multiples of TabWidth plus 1. For the default tab width of 8, this means 1, 9, 17 etc. Some programmers prefer tab width of 3 for source listings, giving 1, 4, 7, 10, etc. A tab width of 1 would simply convert tabs into spaces. The maximum TabWidth is 30. Form Feeds If TDPRT encounters a form-feed (Chr(12)) in the input file, it ends the current page and starts the next. Page numbering is correctly maintained. Some word processors and other applications send a form feed before printing, but not after. This makes them nicely compatible with themselves, but not necessarily you. Their idea is that the form feed guarantees they will start on a fresh page, regardless of what program might have printed a partial page already. My objection is that I almost always advance the paper and tear off the latest pages for proofing as soon as they are done. When a program sends another form feed before the next job, it wastes a whole sheet of paper. TDPRT does NOT send a form feed before printing. If you would like it to, just add "/012" to 6 LPI and 8 LPI, since one or the other is always sent. To make it optional, put it in one of the user setup strings. TDPRT doesn't send a formfeed at the end of the job. It does print enough blank lines to advance the paper to the next form. If you'd like an extra form feed after, add it to the RESET string. Usage Notes: I'm the first to admit that the options can be overwhelming. Many users will spend some time experimenting, settle on one combination of options, make them their personal default, and forget the rest. If you find several complex sets of options you need for different purposes, you might make batch files to invoke TDPRT with the ones you need. SET and CONFIGURE options will not work if you rename the COM file. I sometimes get the program configured with many options and want to print something "vanilla" without any of them. That is why "STANDARD" is there. It resets everything except the printer setup strings to the "factory" specs. Anything you code before STANDARD is ignored; anything after is used. The same kind of reset is available for printer setup strings with the FX option. Issue both of the following commands to return EVERYTHING to normal: TDPRT ( STANDARD SAVE TDPRT ( FX CONFIGURE Do NOT give a header in quotes on the command line when doing SAVE. I'm working on a fix that would let you do something like "/f Your Name /p". You can give UHEADER with SAVE to make the program always prompt you for a header. Printer Ready TDPRT checks to see if the printer is ready before sending output to it. If the printer is not available, you have the choice of getting it online and trying again, or halting the program. If the printer runs out of paper or goes offline after the program has started, you will still get the dreaded "Abort, Retry or Ignore" message from DOS. If you TOFILE to a disk file, TDPRT won't check the printer. Favorite setups: My favorite right now is "( ELITE MAR 10 WIDTH 96 NUM LPI 8". I use this with program listings. I need numbers for the CLIPPER debugger. The margin and elite type leave wide margins for binding or pencil notes. Eight lines per inch gets more stuff on fewer pages. Let me know if you come up with nice combinations. Suggested enhancements: These things will be added to TDPRT if possible and as my time allows: Allow /d and /t for date and time in headers. Allow /f and /p anywhere in the header. Distribution: This program, in source and object form, is protected by copyright law, and is NOT in the public domain. It is, however, "user-distributed". It may be distributed freely in any manner, with the following restrictions: 1 - Do not charge for distribution of this program, beyond the cost of reproduction & mailing. 2 - Distribute this documentation with the program. 3 - Leave the author's name & address in the document. 4 - Do not distribute modified versions. It is the author's desire that no other party make a profit from distribution of this program. I specifically deny permission to use this program to companies like PC-Sig or bulletin boards which charge for download privileges. If you want to promote user-distributed software and feel the program is useful enough to be worth $15.00, the contribution will certainly be appreciated. It will also get you on a mailing list for future versions and other utilities. Include a diskette and self-addressed mailer if you'd like the source code. Source code may not be distributed by you. Availability: Current versions of all Saxman Software Tools Disk Series programs are available from the Information Booth bulletin board in Wichita. The board is also a good way to contact the author. Information Booth 316-684-8744 300-1200-2400 8-n-1 This board normally requires registration and a number of upload contributions before allowing downloads. For certain special products listed on the introductory screen these requirements are waived. You will be able to download most Saxman Software programs on the first call. See TDTOOLS.TXT for a list of Tools Disk programs. Author: Jim Standley Saxman Software 2350 Winstead Circle Wichita, Ks 67226 316-688-0235 18:00-22:00 CST Revision Log: 10/04/86 - First public version 10/11/86 - Tabs expansion added Standard option extended to reset all options. Save & Configure search path for the COM file. FX option added. Corrected bug that lost characters at end of file. 10/28/86 - Slash options allowed. Space after open paren not required. Title in single or double quotes. FROMLINE, TOLINE, FROMPAGE, TOPAGE added. TO option changed to TOFILE. Min abbrev the same. FormLength 255 line max added. Version 1.4, never released. 11/14/86 - Corrected formlength bug that made multiple files "creep" down the paper. Added DOS option. Enhanced display on errors. Version 1.5. 12/28/86 - Corrected bug when title was first option. Corrected new creep problem introduced in 1.5. Added user names for user print options. Version 1.6. 03/07/87 - Added printer check before starting print. Version 1.7. 05/24/87 - Minor cosmetic change to error handling. Version 1.8. 08/11/87 - Added NEC P3 option. Version 1.9. 09/27/87 - Added PICA option, plus NOxxxx for all print modes. Corrected some oversights in duplicate keywords. Now all documented options work! Version 2.0. 10/22/87 - Added TabWidth Version 2.1. 11/15/87 - Correct global or wildcard in another directory. Thanks to Doug McGrath for pointing out the bug. Change to BIOS interrupt for printing. Corrected bug with TabWidth > 8. Version 2.2.