PSF for AIX: headerpage rotation and tab character
ITEM: RTA000152440
Q:
Topic thread:
Printer Systems (PRINT - NA/ATS)
PSF/AIX
PRINT XPSF6000
Hello,
My customer has PSF for AIX and wants to:
1. Rotate the header page: I tried to use another formdef
and tested with formdef that uses bin2 and that works;
however when using a formdef that is for landscape,
the header is NOT rotated to landscape.
Is it possible to print the header page landscape?
I have tried to the supplied headers with the same
result always portrait.
2. Use the tab character:
Customer uses a text editor on AIX and also in the
editor the tab character. I have tried to find information
about the effect of tab characters, however no success
so far. Is there a possibility the use the tab character
and have the same result as e.g. in a Windows 95 text
editor and a connected PCL printer.
Of course the tab character causes commands to send to
the printer but is there some kind of a translator in
PSF for AIX to support the tab?
A:
R1) I think you're running into issues related to Set Media Origin
(SMO). Take a look at items RTA000044862, RTA000100250, and
RTA000148248 for a good discussion of formdef rotation and SMO,
including limitations and possible workarounds depending on the
destination printer.
Once you've read those, since you appear to be printing to a
non-IPDS (PCL) printer, I'll confuse the issue by saying that the
developer of the secondary process for PCL printers tells me that he
recently added support for SMO for AIX-defined PSF printers so that
you *can* specify a landscape formdef and media map and have the
jobs print in landscape orientation; see APAR IX79254 in the area
under "Additional Enhancements". I've not been successful testing
it here, but Level 2 tells me that a "real" customer has it working.
I'd suggest getting the latest PTF and trying it, then opening a
PMR if it doesn't work as expected.
R2) I need additional information on this part of the question.Please
describe what datatype the source data is, and what the difference
is between the desired and the actual output. Is ACIF and either
apka2e or asciinp/asciinpe involved? Please provide as much
information as possible, and I'll try to help.
Q:
I think I have confused you with several wwqa items and indeed I didn't
give you enough information.
This item is dealing with a AIX 4.3 and PSF for AIX and attached
several 3160 (IPDS) printers. Customer wants a rotated (landscape)
header page. Is your answer dealing with that?
About subject 2:
The tab character is used in the VI editor and then the file is printed
as ascii data, I am not sure what parameters are used with the LPRAFP
command but the result gave instead of the tab character jumping to
another place several spaces. Of course the table that was meant
to be printed gave no vertical alignment.
Do you have some hints/tips already or do you want more information
on the switches on the LPRAFP command?
A:
Thanks for the additional information.
R1) You are hitting the problem relating to the SMO for the 3160. As
described in the items I referenced above, the only way you can
use a formdef to print the header page in landscape orientation
on the 3160 is to specify a formdef with N_UP 1 with the appropriate
values for PRESENT and DIRECTION. The N_UP specification is the
key; it is not sufficient to specify PRESENT and DIRECTION without
the N_UP.
R2) I have seen the problem that you describe when one tries to print
a file with datatype=ascii when the source files has tabs. The
columns do not line up correctly even though a uniformly spaced
font is used. If one prints the same file natively through AIX
to an AIX printer (not through PSF), it prints correctly.
For datatype=ascii to be used, the incoming datastream must conform
to Proprinter II or QuietWriter III escape sequences. According to
the PSF/AIX Print Administration book (S544-3817-03, page 446 in
Appendix C), the Horizontal Tab (HT) key would need to be a X'09'.
In vi on my AIX 4.2.1 system, the tab key creates a X'09', so that
would seem to be okay, but...
However, the note for the HT code says "The horizontal-tab command
uses tabs set by the ESC D sequence." And this is where I think the
issue is. If you read up on the ESC D sequence on page 451,
you'll see that it says "If no tabs are set (meaning by an ESC
D sequence in the datastream), horizontal tabs (HT) are ignored."
Unless your customer is coding the ESC D sequence to set the tab
stops in his or her datastream, PSF will ignore the HTs for
datatype=ascii.
I'm unable to do additional testing on this at the moment, but
I believe this is why you're seeing what you do with datatype=ascii
and tabs.
Most of our customers use ACIF and datatype=line, even for ASCII
files, rather than datatype=ascii and the ASCII Font Mapping
Tables because of the better capabilities for formatting and use
of fonts. Would this be possible for your customer?
S e a r c h - k e y w o r d s:
psf/6000 psf/aix psf aix smo set media origin landscape formdef
rotate form definition tab datatype ascii align ipds pcl ppds
compatibility cut sheet cutsheet infoprint
WWQA: ITEM: RTA000152440 ITEM: RTA000152440
Dated: 10/1998 Category: XPSF6000
This HTML file was generated 99/06/24~12:43:40
Comments or suggestions?
Contact us