Topic: Does Vedit insert page breaks when 'printing' ? (1 of 17), Read 85 times
Conf: Printing, Word processing
From: scan reg
Date: Sunday, September 23, 2007 06:39 PM

Hi :-)

I'm trying out Vedit to feed raw text data to special machinery to "print" metal tags and other things.

Each tag uses 5 lines, and a file (or selection) might have 500 or more lines. Thus, 100 tags are made in one batch.

If I feed one tag (5 lines) at a time, the machinery makes each tag just fine. However, I've found that if I feed a long file (500 lines - 100 tags) to the machinery that the machinery messes up some of the tags (13th tag and 79th tag), even though the hex view shows good, clean text.

Question: Does Vedit insert anything like Page Breaks or other such things for long files when submitting the file or a selection for 'printing'?

I think it is, cuz I can't see anything in the hex view to indicate missed lines. They all look clean in the hex view.

I found a text editor that does submit the data seemingly without any extra characters and when using that editor, all the tags come out okay. It's a VERY basic editor, like no features, but it's the only thing I've found works. I'd much prefer having a great editor like Vedit to do all my text tasks.

This is actually a critical issue for me. Any thoughts/suggestion most welcome.

Thanks :-)

 

Topic: Does Vedit insert page breaks when 'printing' ? (2 of 17), Read 63 times
Conf: Printing, Word processing
From: Ian Binnie
Date: Sunday, September 23, 2007 09:24 PM

Look in Config/Printer (and read the Help)

Try setting FormFeed off

 

Topic: Does Vedit insert page breaks when 'printing' ? (3 of 17), Read 61 times
Conf: Printing, Word processing
From: scan reg
Date: Monday, September 24, 2007 07:25 AM

I unchecked Enable Form Feed and have all margins set to zero, RAW, but still another test shows the same tags (13th and 79th) where the 'printer' machinery has not recognized CR on one line of each of the mentioned tags.

 

Topic: Does Vedit insert page breaks when 'printing' ? (6 of 17), Read 53 times
Conf: Printing, Word processing
From: Pauli Lindgren
Date: Monday, September 24, 2007 02:36 PM

On 9/24/2007 7:25:58 AM, scan reg wrote:
>I unchecked Enable Form Feed and have all margins set to
>zero, RAW, but still another test shows the same tags (13th
>and 79th) where the 'printer' machinery has not recognized
>CR on one line of each of the mentioned tags.

I don't think 'Enable Form Feed' setting has anything to do with the problem. The Help is not very informative, but I think this setting only concerns handling of the Form Feed characters that are in the text file.

I think the problem is that Vedit sends Form Feed (or some other control sequence to switch page) after the selected number of lines has been printed (paper length).

I have not found a setting that would allow disabling the page change.

Maybe you could set the paper length to 5 lines and top/bottom margins to zero. Then each tag would be printed as separate page.

--
Pauli

 

Topic: Does Vedit insert page breaks when 'printing' ? (4 of 17), Read 55 times
Conf: Printing, Word processing
From: Christian Ziemski
Date: Monday, September 24, 2007 11:46 AM

On 9/23/2007 6:39:20 PM, scan reg wrote:
>
>I'm trying out Vedit to feed raw text data to special
>machinery to "print" metal tags and other things.

Under Windows it's near to impossible to send raw data while using the normal print functions.

It may be possible to use a dumb printer driver like ASCII or so, but I'm not sure.

If I have to send raw data to a device I'm using the command prompt like this:

copy /b filename.dat LPT1:


That also works with network attached printers:

copy /b test.txt \\printserver\queuename


So you can create a small macro in VEDIT which does exactly that.

Christian

 

Topic: Does Vedit insert page breaks when 'printing' ? (5 of 17), Read 58 times
Conf: Printing, Word processing
From: scan reg
Date: Monday, September 24, 2007 12:30 PM

Interesting

Is there a way to send "selection" to the 'printer' using the same approach?

I use some very large files and just send one section at a time to the 'printer' machinery

Where do I find an ASCII driver for WinXP? I'd like to try that.


Many thanks :-)

 

Topic: Does Vedit insert page breaks when 'printing' ? (7 of 17), Read 54 times
Conf: Printing, Word processing
From: Christian Ziemski
Date: Monday, September 24, 2007 02:54 PM

On 9/24/2007 12:30:34 PM, scan reg wrote:
>Interesting
>
>Is there a way to send "selection" to the 'printer'
>using the same approach?
>
>I use some very large files and just send one section at a
>time to the 'printer' machinery

With VEDIT's macro language all is possible ;-)

I assume a macro with 10 or so commands would do it.


>Where do I find an ASCII driver for WinXP? I'd like to
>try that.


Since I don't have XP here at home I can't tell.
I'll check my XP box at work tomorrow.

Christian

 

Topic: Does Vedit insert page breaks when 'printing' ? (8 of 17), Read 58 times
Conf: Printing, Word processing
From: Christian Ziemski
Date: Monday, September 24, 2007 03:39 PM

>On 9/24/2007 12:30:34 PM, scan reg wrote:
>
>Is there a way to send "selection" to the 'printer'
>using the same approach?
>
>I use some very large files and just send one section at a
>time to the 'printer' machinery

Here a macro to play with (only the first command "Reg_Set(105,...." must be customized to your printer.




      //

      // PrintRaw.vdm               Christian Ziemski  2007-09-24

      //

      // Assuming that the current buffer has an assigned filename

      // No error handling yet

      //

      Reg_Set(105, "f:\xxx\test.txt")  // target for "printing" the raw data to

      // for example "LPT1:"  or "\\printserver\network_printer"

      

      Out_Reg(103) PATHNAME Out_Reg(CLEAR)

      if (BB == -1) {

      File_Save(NOMSG)

      } else {

      Reg_Set(103, "|(VEDIT_TEMP)\printraw.tmp")

      Block_Save_As(@103, BB, BE)

      }

      Reg_Set(104, "copy /b ")

      Reg_Set(104, @103, APPEND)

      Reg_Set(104, " ", APPEND)

      Reg_Set(104, @105, APPEND)

      Sys("|@(104)", DOS+SIMPLE+SUPPRESS+OK)



Christian

 

Topic: Does Vedit insert page breaks when 'printing' ? (9 of 17), Read 63 times
Conf: Printing, Word processing
From: scan reg
Date: Monday, September 24, 2007 08:58 PM

>>"Maybe you could set the paper length to 5 lines and top/bottom margins to zero. Then each tag would be printed as separate page."

That's also an interesting option. I'll give this a try tomorrow. Thanks :-)

BTW, is it possible to set "paper length" to greater than 100? Maybe 10,000 or even 100,000? I know it sounds crazy but it might solve things. I saw in Config that you can enter either 0 (auto) or anything within 5-100.

>>"Here a macro to play with ..."


Also an interesting possibility. Thanks so much for the code (though I admit I'm totally new to macros).


I really appreciate everyone's suggestions. I'll play around with stuff tomorrow and see what I can come up with.


Thanks again :-)

 

Topic: Re: Does Vedit insert page breaks when 'printing' ? (13 of 17), Read 54 times
Conf: Printing, Word processing
From: Ted Green
Date: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 11:19 AM

At 07:49 PM 9/24/2007, you wrote:
>From: "scan reg"
>
>>Maybe you could set the paper length to 5 lines and top/bottom margins to zero. Then each tag would be printed as separate page.
>
>That's also an interesting option. I'll give this a try tomorrow. Thanks :-)

Just so that everyone is on the same page:

1. The Windows version of VEDIT goes through Windows call and we have no control ov er what happens in the Windows driver. It is probably impossible to prevent the Windows driver from adding chars.

2. The DOS version of VEDIT writes directly to LPT1: and there is much more control. However, I am not sure that all extra chars can be turned off.

3. As Christian suggested, simply copying the file to LPT1: ensures no extra chars.

Ted.


Ted.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ted Green (ted@...) Greenview Data, Inc.
Web: www.... 8178 Jackson Rd., Ann Arbor, MI
Tel: (734) 426-7500 Fax: 734-426-7510 VEDIT - Text/Data/Binary Editor
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
www.SpamStopsHere.com ranked #1 in accuracy by Network Computing Magazine

 

Topic: Re: Does Vedit insert page breaks when 'printing' (14 of 17), Read 52 times
Conf: Printing, Word processing
From: Pauli Lindgren
Date: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 06:08 AM

I made a little test.
I added a "Generic / Text only" printer (with the default RAW mode) that prints to file.
Then set in Vedit configuration Paper length = 5, top/bottom margins = 0.

When I print to the generic printer, the resulting output file contains lots of Linefeed characters between each block of 5 lines.

Obviously, the printer driver assumes that paper of the selected size (e.g. Letter) is used and fills the rest of page with empty lines.

When I selected "RAW [FF auto]" from the printer properties, the Linefeeds are not added, but instead a single Formfeed.

Maybe one of these settings works with your printer.
But probably the best way is to use Christian's macro.
You can add a call to this macro in your User Menu.

--
Pauli

 

Topic: Does Vedit insert page breaks when 'printing' ? (15 of 17), Read 26 times
Conf: Printing, Word processing
From: scan reg
Date: Monday, May 26, 2008 11:40 AM

On 9/24/2007 3:39:36 PM, Christian Ziemski wrote:
>Here a macro to play with (only the
>first command "Reg_Set(105,...." must be
>customized to your printer.
>
>
>
>//
>// PrintRaw.vdm Christian
>Ziemski 2007-09-24
>//
>// Assuming that the current buffer has
>an assigned filename
>// No error handling yet
>//
>Reg_Set(105, "f:\xxx\test.txt") //
>target for "printing" the raw data to
>// for example "LPT1:" or
>"\\printserver\network_printer"
>Out_Reg(103) PATHNAME Out_Reg(CLEAR)
>if (BB == -1) {
> File_Save(NOMSG)
>} else {
>Reg_Set(103,
>"|(VEDIT_TEMP)\printraw.tmp")
> Block_Save_As(@103, BB, BE)
>}
>Reg_Set(104, "copy /b ")
>Reg_Set(104, @103, APPEND)
>Reg_Set(104, " ", APPEND)
>Reg_Set(104, @105, APPEND)
>Sys("|@(104)", DOS+SIMPLE+SUPPRESS+OK)
>
>Christian

Regarding, "Here a macro to play with (only the >first command "Reg_Set(105,...." must be customized to your printer.":

1. the computer actually has 4 printers hooked up in various COM ports.

2. I'd like to send out multiple print jobs to all the print machines and have all the print machines working simultaneously (though the print jobs would be sent out one after the other quickly)

3. the LPT1 port is not used for these print machines (that port is only used for a regular multi-function printer)

4. how could I get this macro (or others) to aim at the various print machines on the COM ports?

5. is this macro able to handle 'print selection'? such that a selected section from a large file could be printed

Thanks super much

 

Topic: Re: Does Vedit insert page breaks when 'printing' ? (16 of 17), Read 26 times
Conf: Printing, Word processing
From: Christian Ziemski
Date: Monday, May 26, 2008 02:25 PM

On 26.05.2008 17:40 vtech-print-wp Listmanager wrote:
> From: "scan reg"
>
> Regarding, "Here a macro to play with (only the >first command "Reg_Set(105,...." must be customized to your printer.":
>
> 1. the computer actually has 4 printers hooked up in various COM ports.

I never used printers on COM ports but I assume it must be COM1 to COM4
then.

> 4. how could I get this macro (or others) to aim at the various print machines on the COM ports?

Possibly by using COM1: to COM4:

You may try it on a DOS command prompt with

copy /b filename.dat COM1:


In my macro this could be configured like so:

Reg_Set(105, "COM1:") // target for "printing" the raw data to

> 5. is this macro able to handle 'print selection'? such that a selected section from a large file could be printed

Yes, the following part is handling that:

if (Block_Begin == -1) {
File_Save(NOMSG)
} else {
Reg_Set(103, "|(VEDIT_TEMP)\printraw.tmp")
Block_Save_As(@103, BB, BE)
}


Christian

 

Topic: Re: Does Vedit insert page breaks when 'printing' (17 of 17), Read 18 times
Conf: Printing, Word processing
From: scan reg
Date: Monday, May 26, 2008 07:47 PM

Thanks so much, will give this a try, thanks again

 

Topic: Does Vedit insert page breaks when 'printing' ? (10 of 17), Read 51 times
Conf: Printing, Word processing
From: Ian Binnie
Date: Monday, September 24, 2007 10:38 PM

On 9/24/2007 2:54:40 PM, Christian Ziemski wrote:
>On 9/24/2007 12:30:34 PM, scan reg
>wrote:

>>Where do I find an ASCII driver for WinXP? I'd like to
>>try that.
>
Create a "Generic / TextOnly" printer.
You can set this to various modes - RAW is default.

 

Topic: Does Vedit insert page breaks when 'printing' ? (11 of 17), Read 55 times
Conf: Printing, Word processing
From: scan reg
Date: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 07:25 AM

>> Create a "Generic / TextOnly" printer.
>> You can set this to various modes - RAW is default.

Yes, true. That's how I set it up originally.

Looking into this further, I found the following:

Start > Settings > Printers > (generic printer name) , right click > Properties > Advanced Tab > Print Processor:

2-Pane window

Left side: MS_XPS, ModiPrint, BRMFC Print, WinPrint

When you select one of the above, the options in the right pane change

Example, if WinPrint is selected, then the Right Side options are: RAW, RAW [FF appended], RAW [FF auto], a lot of NT EMF (then series of numbers), and then TEXT.

This is new to me, looking into what these mean and any limitations, etc. I'm wondering if the WinPrint TEXT option will not care about page size, lines per page, that sort of thing, and just be a straight data feed.

 

Topic: Re: Does Vedit insert page breaks when 'printing' ? (12 of 17), Read 49 times
Conf: Printing, Word processing
From: Ted Green
Date: Tuesday, September 25, 2007 10:56 AM

At 11:47 AM 9/24/2007, you wrote:
>From: "Christian Ziemski"
>
>On 9/23/2007 6:39:20 PM, scan reg wrote:
>>
>>I'm trying out Vedit to feed raw text data to special
>>machinery to "print" metal tags and other things.
>
>Under Windows it's near to impossible to send raw data while using the normal print functions.
>
>It may be possible to use a dumb printer driver like ASCII or so, but I'm not sure.
>
>If I have to send raw data to a device I'm using the command prompt like this:
>
>copy /b filename.dat LPT1:
>
>
>That also works with network attached printers:
>
>copy /b test.txt \\printserver\queuename
>
>
>So you can create a small macro in VEDIT which does exactly that.

That is a perfect answer! (Thanks Christian.)

Note that even the Print function in the DOS version of VEDIT will add Form-Feed, spaces and CR/LF to the printed output. It might be possible to turn them all off with printer config parameters, but I cannot be sure.

Simply copying a file to e.g. LPT1: is the better way.

Ted.