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Printing to an LA75 using VMS queues and form definitions

by mark＠wickensonline.co.uk

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/TRUNCA 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.

14 years, 6 months

Printing to an LA75 using VMS queues and form definitions

by jeep＠scshome.net

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/TRUNCA 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.

14 years, 6 months

Printing to an LA75 using VMS queues and form definitions

by mark＠wickensonline.co.uk

On 08/03/11 21:49, Gregg Levine wrote: On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 4:43 PM, Mark Wickens wrote: On 08/03/11 21:33, Gregg Levine wrote: On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 4:27 PM, Mark Wickens wrote: 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/TRUNCATE $ 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 Hello! Mark I have several of those terminal servers here. How is yours configured, and even wired to your system? (or systems?) ----- Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com "This signature fought the Time Wars, time and again." Hi Greg, It is wired to a 10MB router that has both a 10base2 (BNC) connector and some 10baseT (RJ45) connectors via a thin wire BNC cable connected to T-pieces with a 50 ohm terminator on each end. The 10MB router is connected to a Netgear gigabit router via CAT-5 and then out to the rest of the world. I configured the terminal server by connecting a terminal/pc terminal emulator to port 1 via a DB9 to RJ45 cable. The management interface allows you to then specify the name of the decserver and the name of the port, and whether it is a printer/terminal port, speed, etc. Once the port was configured I used the decserver/port name in the LAT configuration on the VAX. I defined a virtual terminal pointing to that decserver/port then pointed the printer queue to that. The printer connects at 4800 baud to the specified printer port via a MMJ to MMJ cable that came with it. Hope that sheds some light, Mark. Hello! Oh yes. With one of mine I had gotten as far as the configuration steps. But the connectivity issues were the big one. Do you recall who makes this "10MB router that has both a 10base2 (BNC) connector and some 10baseT (RJ45) connectors". I've been trying to find one with limited success about the time the first one arrived here. Strangely enough both it, and a VAX Station 3100 arrived here from a fellow on the original Linux-VAX list. There was one of those in the list, but that went to a different individual, it might have been you, then again I can't recall. That VAX Station 3100 is next to get working, perhaps I'll have the time to do so, this summer or later. ----- Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com "This signature fought the Time Wars, time and again." Greg, This particular router is a 'no-name' white box. It was actually new when I bought it off ebay, probably about 2 years ago. If you create an ebay search for '(10base2, BNC) router' something will come up (you may need to say 'include description'). I have another one which has more ports, made my Allied Telesis (always a good brand in my experience). Yes - I think the boxes did go to me. The 90M is invaluable for serving serial consoles out to TCP/IP telnet connections. The 90L+ does a fine job of handling the printer, and doesn't require any configuration for firmware downloading (it also boots within about 10 seconds). Regards, Mark.

14 years, 6 months

Printing to an LA75 using VMS queues and form definitions

by mark＠wickensonline.co.uk

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/TRUNCATE $ 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.

14 years, 6 months

Printing to an LA75 using VMS queues and form definitions

by jeep＠scshome.net

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/TRUNCATE $ 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

14 years, 6 months

While we're at it - using an LK464 with Ubuntu...

by mark＠wickensonline.co.uk

Just to let people know that the LK464 can be made to work in both standard keyboard layout for use with a PC and also in OpenVMS mode for use via remote decterms/xterms on VMS boxes. I've created two little icons on my command bar that run two scripts to install an xmodmap overlay to use the keyboard for either PC or VMS use. The overlay primarily swaps the functionality of the Find, Insert, Remove and Select keys between what is intuitive in PC mode and what is required when connecting to a VMS box. The Help and Do keys also work, as do PF1,PF3,PF4. PF2 is the only key I haven't got mapped correctly, and I think that's because it is mapped to a window manager functionality (enable/disable trackpad). There might be an automated way to apply keymaps to particular classes of windows, but I could grow old finding the right solution, and clicking on a couple of icons at the top of the screen is hardly arduous, especially as most of the time I'm in one mood or the other. The LK464 OpenVMS modmap file is (PC mode is a straight dump of the default US mapping): keycode 9=grave asciitilde keycode 49 = less greater keycode 199 = KP_F1 keycode 200 = KP_F2 keycode 201 = KP_F3 keycode 202 = KP_F4 keycode 110 = Find keycode 115 = Select keycode 191 = F13 keycode 192 = F14 keycode 142 = F16 keycode 195 = F17 keycode 196 = F18 keycode 197 = F19 keycode 198 = F20 keycode 108 = Alt_R keycode 90 = KP_0 keycode 87 = KP_1 keycode 88 = KP_2 keycode 89 = KP_3 keycode 83 = KP_4 keycode 84 = KP_5 keycode 85 = KP_6 keycode 79 = KP_7 keycode 80 = KP_8 keycode 81 = KP_9 keycode 91 = KP_Decimal keycode 129 = KP_Separator keycode 22 = Delete keycode 119 = 0x1000FF00 Regards, Mark.

14 years, 6 months

Printing to an LA75 using VMS queues and form definitions

by gregg.drwho8＠gmail.com

On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 4:43 PM, Mark Wickens wrote: On 08/03/11 21:33, Gregg Levine wrote: On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 4:27 PM, Mark Wickens wrote: 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/TRUNCATE $ 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 Hello! Mark I have several of those terminal servers here. How is yours configured, and even wired to your system? (or systems?) ----- Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com "This signature fought the Time Wars, time and again." Hi Greg, It is wired to a 10MB router that has both a 10base2 (BNC) connector and some 10baseT (RJ45) connectors via a thin wire BNC cable connected to T-pieces with a 50 ohm terminator on each end. The 10MB router is connected to a Netgear gigabit router via CAT-5 and then out to the rest of the world. I configured the terminal server by connecting a terminal/pc terminal emulator to port 1 via a DB9 to RJ45 cable. The management interface allows you to then specify the name of the decserver and the name of the port, and whether it is a printer/terminal port, speed, etc. Once the port was configured I used the decserver/port name in the LAT configuration on the VAX. I defined a virtual terminal pointing to that decserver/port then pointed the printer queue to that. The printer connects at 4800 baud to the specified printer port via a MMJ to MMJ cable that came with it. Hope that sheds some light, Mark. Hello! Oh yes. With one of mine I had gotten as far as the configuration steps. But the connectivity issues were the big one. Do you recall who makes this "10MB router that has both a 10base2 (BNC) connector and some 10baseT (RJ45) connectors". I've been trying to find one with limited success about the time the first one arrived here. Strangely enough both it, and a VAX Station 3100 arrived here from a fellow on the original Linux-VAX list. There was one of those in the list, but that went to a different individual, it might have been you, then again I can't recall. That VAX Station 3100 is next to get working, perhaps I'll have the time to do so, this summer or later. ----- Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com "This signature fought the Time Wars, time and again."

14 years, 6 months

Printing to an LA75 using VMS queues and form definitions

by mark＠wickensonline.co.uk

On 08/03/11 21:33, Gregg Levine wrote: On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 4:27 PM, Mark Wickens wrote: 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/TRUNCATE $ 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 Hello! Mark I have several of those terminal servers here. How is yours configured, and even wired to your system? (or systems?) ----- Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com "This signature fought the Time Wars, time and again." Hi Greg, It is wired to a 10MB router that has both a 10base2 (BNC) connector and some 10baseT (RJ45) connectors via a thin wire BNC cable connected to T-pieces with a 50 ohm terminator on each end. The 10MB router is connected to a Netgear gigabit router via CAT-5 and then out to the rest of the world. I configured the terminal server by connecting a terminal/pc terminal emulator to port 1 via a DB9 to RJ45 cable. The management interface allows you to then specify the name of the decserver and the name of the port, and whether it is a printer/terminal port, speed, etc. Once the port was configured I used the decserver/port name in the LAT configuration on the VAX. I defined a virtual terminal pointing to that decserver/port then pointed the printer queue to that. The printer connects at 4800 baud to the specified printer port via a MMJ to MMJ cable that came with it. Hope that sheds some light, Mark.

14 years, 6 months

Printing to an LA75 using VMS queues and form definitions

by gregg.drwho8＠gmail.com

On Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 4:27 PM, Mark Wickens wrote: 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/TRUNCATE $ 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 Hello! Mark I have several of those terminal servers here. How is yours configured, and even wired to your system? (or systems?) ----- Gregg C Levine gregg.drwho8 at gmail.com "This signature fought the Time Wars, time and again."

14 years, 6 months

Oh, sorry, and number 2...

by mark＠wickensonline.co.uk

2. Printing to it from a DECterm using the print menu on the terminal and SIXEL graphics format produces a completely black image. If I use the print screen facility I do get a black and white representation of the screen area as captured. Thanks for the help, Mark.

14 years, 6 months

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