Text to PDF converter for OpenVMS Integrity

[Phil VanKley]

I am looking for a text-to-pdf converter that will run on VMS Integrity V8.3-1H1. I'd like to be able to convert my text-based report files, for example, to a PDF file by using a DCL command. Ideally, a command where I pass in the input text file as an argument and the output pdf filename as another argument.

In scanning through various resources, I have come across two possibilities that may work, but I'd like more information about them, if possible.

Option #1 is "text2pdf", which I obtained from http://eisner.decus.org/~berry_c/TEXT2PDF.ZIP. This zip file only contains a single C source file. I was hoping to obtain some additional information about how to use this. For example, can arguments be specified in a command to dictate whether the output PDF should be created in landscape vs portrait mode, for example? I'm looking for the command options, essentially.

Option #2 is "txt2pdf" from http://www.sanface.com/. I have never used Perl, so this is a little foreign to me. I'm assuming I would need to install the Perl for OpenVMS product on the Integrity system, and then go through a build procedure of this application on the VMS system? Can anyone point me to any instructional documentation about how to setup and use this on VMS?

[Hoff]

http://www.eprg.org/pdfcorner/text2pdf/help.php

[Joseph Huber_1]

For the sanface txt2pdf product (commercial), why not simply read and follow their installation instructions on
http://www.sanface.com/txt2pdf.html#installing
?
They mention VMS , and it seems to be nothing more than unpacking the distribution into a directory, and to edit the configuration file to Your taste.
Of course, as a perl program, it needs Perl as a prerequisit.
Sanface txt2pdf seems to offer much more formatting options than the simple opensource text2pdf.

[Craig A Berry]

The help text that Hoff points to is also available by simply running the program:


$ mcr []text2pdf -h

text2pdf [options] [filename]

text2pdf makes a 7-bit clean PDF file (version 1.1) from any input file.
It reads from standard input or a named file, and writes the PDF file
to standard output.

There are various options as follows:

-h show this message
-f use PostScript (must be in standard 14, default: Courier)
-I use ISOLatin1Encoding
-s use font at given pointsize (default 10)
-v use given line spacing (default 12 points)
-l lines per page (default 60, determined automatically
if unspecified)
-c maximum characters per line (default 80)
-t spaces per tab character (default 8)
-F ignore formfeed characters (^L)
-A4 use A4 paper (default Letter)
-A3 use A3 paper (default Letter)
-x independent paper width in points
-y independent paper height in points
-2 format in 2 columns
-L landscape mode
-ml left margin in points
-mt top margin in points

Note that where one variable is implied by two options, the second option
takes precedence for that variable. (e.g. -A4 -y500)
In landscape mode, page width and height are simply swapped over before
formatting, no matter how or when they were defined.

text2pdf v1.2 (c) Phil Smith, 1996

[Jerry Alan Braga]

I have created and posted my version of the command file. It is written in c and needs to be compiled on ia64. I wrap this routine around a command file of the same name. I tweaked the version in order to pass an argument that will detect the length of a record from the text file and pass this to the converter. From their the c code creates the correctly scaled document P80 L100 L132
Goto <> and cut and paste this into a txt2pdf.com and txt2pdf.c

[abrsvc]

Jerry,

The link you provided results in a "story not found" message.

Dan

[Phil VanKley]

Thanks for the pointer to the help information for text2pdf. I'm having a challenge getting the conversion to do what I want. I have a 132-character width report that was produced by a COBOL application on the VMS system. There is a form-feed character separating each page.

I want a PDF report created from this in landscape mode. I've tried a few iterations of commands, and always get a PDF file with a single report line per page. I've tried the following commands:

$ text2pdf -L report132.rpt >report132.pdf
$ text2pdf -L -c152 report132.rpt >report132.pdf

Any suggestions?

I also have some wider reports (198 characters) that need to be converted to PDF. Will I be able to do this with this tool?

[Joseph Huber_1]

I can't verify the problem with text2pdf:
it produces a page when either the number of lines per page is reached, or a formfeed character is encountered (unless -F option).
Your problem is either:
the file contains a formfeed for each line (verify with and editor).
or
the "-L" option arrives as "-l" ,, leading to 1 line per page.
Try: text2pdf "-L" ,
If that succeeds then Your DCL and/or CRTL parsing rules are set to make all unquoted arguments to arrive lower case in the C arguments.

$ show process/parse_style
if it is "Traditional" do
$ SET PROCESS/PARSE=EXTENDED

and
$ DEFINE Â DECC$ARGV_PARSE_STYLE "ENABLE"

to see the difference with unquoted options.

Second question: longer lines can of course be handled, but text2pdf only can set a fixed maximum line length: You have to decide the value of the "-c" option, eventually adjust the fontsize using the "-s" option.

[Joseph Huber_1]

Sorry, pasted an additional character in the define statement above, it should read:
$ DEFINE DECC$ARGV_PARSE_STYLE "ENABLE"