topic Re: Printing FORMS in Operating System - OpenVMS

Printing FORMS

Joewee — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 11:43:45 GMT

We have two FORMS

$sho queue/form hpl4/full
Form name Number Description
--------- ------ -----------
HPL4 1300 Default 60 line 80 char / no bo
rder
/LENGTH=66 /MARGIN=(BOTTOM=6) /STOCK=HPL4 /TRUNCATE /WIDTH=132
$sho queue/form hpl4d/full
Form name Number Description
--------- ------ -----------
HPL4D 1350 Default no settings
/LENGTH=66 /MARGIN=(BOTTOM=6) /STOCK=HPL4D /TRUNCATE /WIDTH=132

when we print with HPL4 its printing single sided, when we print with HPL4D it prints in DUPLEX

I trying to know how the print job understands this

Is this through
Form Definition or
Stock mentioned or
Library mentioned in queue or
/SEPARATE=(RESET=(HPL4_RESET))

And how to view them or edit them?

Re: Printing FORMS

Hoff — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 13:32:59 GMT

HP OpenVMS System Managerâ s Manual, Volume 1: Essentials

ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/openvms/doc/AA-PV5MJ-TK.PDF

page 538, Setting Up and Maintaining Queues

page 582, Using and Creating Forms

page 585, Assigning a Default Form for a Queue

Re: Printing FORMS

Joewee — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 06:44:29 GMT

Many thanks Hoff.

Now I have landed up in Escape sequence and Device control Libraries.

Is there any manual to learn more about these escape sequences?

Re: Printing FORMS

Kees L. — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 06:56:30 GMT

It's been long ago for me, but I took a look at the mechanism.
When your printqueue is defined you can define LIBRARY=??, eg LIBR=HPLJ4
This Libraryfile resides in SYS$LIBRARY and is called HPLJ4.TLB. When you do a:
$ LIBR/LIST sys$library:hplj4.tlb it shows you the FORMS it knows.
In these FORMS are ESCAPE-codes needed to make the printer do things. Through that you can make the printer do 72 lines instead of 66 and 12 cpi instead of 10. For Kyocera-printers it was even possible to make the printer print without any margin through these codes.
Do a LIBR/EXTRACT=(MYFORM)/OUTPUT=myform.txt SYS$LIBRARY:HPLJ4.TLB and edit MYFORM.txt using EDT (shows the escape codes more clearly).

If you want to experiment then first make your own version of the library and then do a LIBR/INSERT of LIBR/REPLACE to put your own forms in. Put your new library in SYS$LIBRARY with right permissions and init your own que to use your custom library.

Good luck!

Re: Printing FORMS

Joewee — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 07:55:26 GMT

Ok Great!!

I have extracted the reset sequence of the two different libraries.

HPL4_RESET

]VMS;2\PE\

HPL4D_RESET

]VMS;2\PE\&l1S

Is it because of this if we print in HPL4 its single sided and if we print in HPL4D then its double sided?

Is there any way to understand this, from basic. I have never used any kind of escape sequences before.

I tried Google but most of the links are for specific purpose in doing something and If I try to co-relate, then its confusing.

Re: Printing FORMS

Kees L. — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 10:38:20 GMT

After some searching I found this link:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/bpl13205/bpl13205.pdf
Play with it and the printer will do anything you want, though it will not print 3D objects I suppose. There are printers that will, but there duplex is not important.

The PDF says:
Simplex/Duplex Print
Prints front side of a page or both sides (front and back - in either of two
binding modes).
? & l # S
# = 0 - Single side (Simplex)
1 - Duplex, long-edge binding
2 - Duplex, short-edge binding

Looks familiar?

Re: Printing FORMS

Peter Weaver_1 — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 12:51:25 GMT

Take a look at http://www.weaverconsulting.ca/translate_pcl.zip. I wrote this to help figure out what the various escape sequences were doing.

Unzip the file then use the command;
edit/tpu/command=prw_trans:translate_pcl.tpu file.txt

Once in the editor press CTRL-D to display the translated text.

It worked on most of the setup modules I tried but YMMV.

Re: Printing FORMS

Hoff — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 14:23:36 GMT

>Is there any manual to learn more about these escape sequences?

These tend to be device-specific, so you would look at the documentation for your particular device; you'd need to look for materials on whichever model of printer this is.

General OpenVMS documentation:

http://www.hp.com/go/openvms/doc

OpenVMS Printing:

http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/622

http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/1713

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/wizard/wiz_5271.html

http://h71000.www7.hp.com/wizard/wiz_1020.html

HP PCL:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printer_Command_Language

Additional Support Resources:

http://decuserve.org/anon/htnotes/

Google Tools, Resources:

For a searchable resource for many previous discussions of many of the common questions on OpenVMS, see and search this Google archive:

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#forum/comp.os.vms

This archive is NOT included in the general Google search.

One of the other Google tools available and useful for your career is the site keyword, and this can allow you to target your searches. A common target for OpenVMS is

site:h71000.www7.hp.com

as this is the IP host that contains most of the OpenVMS information HP has available on the Internet. A wider search would be

site:hp.com

Add this site keyword (with the appropriate target host specified) into your Google query.