**************************************************************************** ****************************************************************************** ** ** ** Columns 2.6 ** ** ** ** The Paper Saving Utility ** ** ** ** ** ** (c) 1993 MJSoft System Software ** ** ** ** - ** ** ** ** Martin Mares ** ** ** ** and ** ** ** ** Tomas Zikmund ** ** ** ****************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** CONTENTS: --------- 1. Preview 2. System requirements 3. How to start Columns 4. The main window 5. Action gadgets 6. String gadgets 7. Option gadgets 8. Remarks 1. Preview ---------- This utility allows you to control your printer in the more efficient way - you can print the text in columns and use various compression modes (up to 160 characters per line and 180 lines per standard DIN A4 page - cca 5.6 times more characters than in usual modes, but still readable...). Main features: - Written completely in assembly - Kickstart 2.0 and 3.0 compatible - Kickstart 2.0 look - Keyboard controls - Saveable settings COLUMNS and its documentation is Copyright (c) Martin Mares & Tomas Zikmund, MJSoft System Software, Prague, Czech Republic. This archive can be freely redistributed, as long as all of its files are included in their original form without any additions, deletions or modifications, and no more than a nominal fee is charged for its distribution. All copyright notices in the programs and accompanying documentation files must remain on their places. Also '.displayme' and other similar files may not be added. This is generally known as FREEWARE. Special permission is given to Fred Fish to distribute this program on his "Fish Disks". This software is provided "AS IS" without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. The author is not responsible for any damage caused by it. 2. System requirements ---------------------- This program requires: - Kickstart 1.2 or higher - Arp.library - Req.library or reqtools.library (if both are available, reqtools will be used) 3. How to start Columns ----------------------- There are two ways to start Columns and pass it the parameters: - Start it from CLI - Parameter template: PRINT/S,FROM,TO,CFG/K - PRINT: start operation automatically without entering GUI. In this case, only the status window will appear and all error messages will be written to standard output. - FROM: name of source file you want to process - TO: name of destination file to store the result to - CFG: name of configuration file to be used - You can start Columns in batch mode (the PRINT option) or only fill in the filename gadgets. - You can use '?' for help, then '?' for more help (as in ARP commands). - Start it from Workbench - you can start it simply by doubleclicking its icon. - you can specify input/output/configuration file name as the tool types (FROM=,TO= and CFG=) - consult your Workbench manual how to do it. - you can shift-doubleclick the source file you wish to use. - the source file passed by shift-doubleclick can also have tool types, which will be used instead of the standard tool types. - it's also possible to set the default tool of some project to Columns. This file will be used as the source file and its tool types will be used. 4. The main window ------------------ If you start Columns, the main window will appear. You can see a lot of gadgets and texts on it. Let's explain them: In the top left corner of the window you can see three large boxes with small gadgets named "FROM", "TO" and "CTAB" on the left. These boxes display the file names - name of the source file, name of the destination file and name of the conversion table file. You can select the file by the file requester if you click on the corresponding gadget. There are some relatively large gadgets in the top right corner. There are named "action gadgets". Each of these gadgets starts some process (other gadgets control only the parameters of the process). The rest of the screen consists of the left half containing string gadgets with many settings (as the page width, page heights, tab size and so on) and the right half filled with switches. 5. Action gadgets ----------------- CONVERT - start text processing from the input file to the output file. The status window will be opened and will show status of the operation (see below). PRINT - start text processing from the input file to the printer. INFO - start text processing from the input file without any output. Useful for determining the number of pages and similar parameters. SAVE CONFIG - save configuration. The default configuration file is s:columns.def. You can save the defaults into the current directory - they will have higher priority. It's also possible to save the defaults to some other file and load it using the CFG option (or the CFG tool type). The file requester will show you the name of the currently used default file. STD SIZE - recalculate the page size from the standard page size according to the print mode. AUTO COLUMN - determine optimal number of columns for selected input file. This function will scan the file and will choose such minimal number of columns, which will produce minimal number of pages. This value can be very suspicious (can you imagine your assembler source in 13 columns? but these can be really optimal if you take care only of the number of pages) and can be limited by the "SEARCH LIMIT" switch. 6. String gadgets ----------------- Page width - width of the current page in the current mode (in characters). Page height - height of the current page in the current mode (in lines). - these two values are usually not entered by the user, because it's better to select the standard page dimensions and use the STD SIZE command. Tab size - size of the tab (in characters). Column width - width of the column. Number of columns - number of columns across the page. - you can enter one of these values (will be marked by the "«" sign) and Columns will calculate the correct value of the other parameter. Std page X & Y - dimensions of the page in standard font (with all the font switches switched off). This page is used as the base for the STD SIZE command. Number of the 1st page - this value will be used as the number of the first page (for example: you can start the page numbers with 7 if you have six pages to use them as first six). Page header - this string will be used as the header of each page if you turn the HEAD switch on. The percent sign ("%") followed by one character will be replaced by some special string: %s - partial file name (without full path) %f - full file name %p - page number %d - current date %t - current time The header will be centered automatically. 7. Option gadgets ----------------- Control characters - selects which set of control characters you wish to use EPSON - use control characters for EPSON printers. In this mode, the PRINT command will not use the standard ANSI output via the printer.device, but the direct output via the parallel or serial.device. ANSI - use standard ANSI control sequences usable for all printers. In this mode, the printer output will be done via the printer.device, but it doesn't support the SMALL mode. NONE - don't emit any control characters. Extraneous characters - selects what you wish to make with these characters, which exceed the column margin CUT - remove them. RIGHT - place them on the right side of the next line (default). LEFT - place them on the left side of the next line. Print mode - specifies the font type ELITE and EPSON specify the width of the characters: ELITE CONDENSED CPI (chars per inch) Epson printers OFF OFF 10 ON OFF 12 OFF ON 17 ON ON 20 some other printers OFF OFF 10 ON OFF 12 OFF ON 15 ON ON 18 SMALL - when used (doesn't work in the ANSI mode), the printer will double the number of lines of the page (allows 180 lines on the DIN A4 page). Quality - specifies the print quality - usually used when you have an old ribbon in the printer. NLQ - use the Near Letter Quality mode. BOLD - print bold letters. Page formatting - defines format of the page FF - put form feeds after pages (if off, only line feeds are emitted). HEAD - use page header. LINES - separate the columns by vertical lines ('|'). EPSON - use standard Epson dimensions of the font (see font switches). LNUM - generate line numbers before each line. The AUTO COLUMN function doesn't give reliable results in this mode. Character conversion - chooses the Character conversion mode. In this mode, each character can converted to any other character using the conversion table (see the file name boxes). Characters converted to 0x00 will be ignored (use for example if you want to remove form feeds from your document). The conversion tables can be simply edited by the CTED program. Large buffer - forces Columns to load the whole file before processing it. Normally, the file is read by the four-kilobyte parts. This options speeds up loading from the disk, but uses more memory. Search limit - sets and enables the maximal number of columns for the AUTO COLUMN function. Protects you against unusable (but really optimal) results. 8. Final words -------------- Send your comments, suggestions and bug reports to mjsoft@k332.feld.cvut.cz.