[HECnet] Printing to an LA75 using VMS queues and form definitions

[Steve Davidson]

LAT boxes sometimes have strange side-effects.   I have seen them really
screw up the page many times.   They seem to work best with Laser's not
always so well with dot-matrix units.   LAT printer farms were always a
source of problems!   The good news is that the DECserver Mark is using
was one of the better ones for printers.   The best unit that I know of
is the LATprint (-LNXXD-M).   I managed to snag one off of Ebay a while
back and have had solid success with it over the past couple of years.

-Steve 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On
Behalf Of Johnny Billquist
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 19:18
To: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Subject: Re: [HECnet] Printing to an LA75 using VMS queues and form
definitions

C'mon guys. Mark said he had a problem with getting the forms right, not
getting the connection to work.

(Or did I miss something?)

	Johnny

On 2011-03-08 23:25, Steve Davidson wrote:
Is the LAT server port (at the DECserver) set to connection limit=1?
That was something else I seem to remember being a requirement.

-Steve


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On 
Behalf Of Mark Wickens
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 17:10
To: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Subject: Re: [HECnet] Printing to an LA75 using VMS queues and form 
definitions

By default it starts up with DEC compatibility mode on the serial 
connection and IBM mode on the parallel connection - there is nothing 
connected to the parallel port.

It seems to honour the top and left margin definition ok, I'm 
wondering whether the 'control library' associated with the printer 
needs to be customised.

The alternative would be to use an equivalent of pr, or maybe even a 
compiled version of pr under OpenVMS. I couldn't find anything that 
would independently format a listing file under OpenVMS, although 
obviously some of the compilers do produce listings in a suitable 
format.

That or install ALLIN1 ;)

Regards, Mark.

On 08/03/11 22:05, Steve Davidson wrote:
Mark,

Does the LA75+ have a compatibility mode setting (usually via dip 
switches)?   I seem to remember that it may have a DEC mode and/or an 
IBM mode and/or somebody else mode.   This might make a difference...
It's been too long... Oh wait it hasn't been long enough!   Yeah,
that's it!

-Steve


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] On

Behalf Of Mark Wickens
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 16:59
To: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Subject: Re: [HECnet] Printing to an LA75 using VMS queues and form 
definitions

On 08/03/11 21:51, Steve Davidson wrote:
Mark,

Do you remember how you initially defined the queue?   Hoff is right 
about them being a pain.   Printers and backups were the biggest 
headaches on VMS at DEC without question.   LAT printers (queues) 
were

much worse than directly connected ones!   I remember it as being a 
bit of a moving target on the best of days.

-Steve

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE [mailto:owner-hecnet at Update.UU.SE] 
On

Behalf Of Mark Wickens
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 16:28
To: hecnet at Update.UU.SE
Subject: [HECnet] Printing to an LA75 using VMS queues and form 
definitions

Hi guys,

I have printing working to my LA75+ dot matrix printer via a spooled

VMS queue which communicates via LAT with the printer attached to a 
DECserver 90L+. Everything is working fine except for two issues:

1. I'd like to be able to print with a form definition which leaves 
a

margin at the top and bottom of the page. I tried this:

$ DEFINE/FORM LISTING 3
/WIDTH=132/PAGE=66/MARGIN=(TOP=6,BOTTOM=6)/STOCK=DEFAULT/NOWRAP/TRUN
C A TE $ SET QUEUE/DEFAULT=FORM=LISTING LA75$PRINT_ALEPH$

I tried asking Hoff but I think he's sick of my 80's related 
questions, his response was entitled:

Classic printing best left to masochistic perfectionists 
<http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/766#comment-2424>
(http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/766)

I think I'm almost there, but the printer appears to be ignoring the

bottom margin - I get a top margin fine, and the listing is not 
exhibiting 'rolling' ie the content of the output is aligned 
correctly on each page.

Anyone got any ideas what I can do? I want to be able to put 
listings

in vertical binders, and that just doesn't work without both top and

bottom margins being honoured.

Regards, Mark

Oh, I think you might just now expose me as a noob...

I used DCPS to initially define the queue... forgetting that it's a 
pointless exercise for this (distinctly non-postscript) printer!

Maybe I need to drop the queues and recreate?

As it stands the queue looks like this:

BUBBLE$$ show queue/full LA75$PRINT_ALEPH$ Terminal queue 
LA75$PRINT_ALEPH$, idle, on ALEPH::LTA75:, mounted form DEFAULT
        /BASE_PRIORITY=4 /DEFAULT=(FORM=DEFAULT) Lowercase
/OWNER=[SYSTEM]
        /NO_INITIAL_FF /PROTECTION=(S:M,O:D,G:R,W:S)

I deliberately set the LTA75: 'terminal' to /WIDTH=132 and /PAGE=66 
which is the page length. The printer starts up in 132 column mode.

Mark.




-- 
Johnny Billquist                                   || "I'm on a bus
                                                                    ||   on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se                         ||   Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                                         ||   tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol