Windows 10 SCO Filepro issue
Bob Rasmussen
ras at anzio.com
Wed Oct 31 18:29:52 PDT 2018
Brian: Good catch! And good breadth of detail. I'm not sure I understand
or agree with the part about HP drivers converting PCL-5 to PCL-6, but
that's for another thread.
On Wed, 31 Oct 2018, Brian White via Filepro-list wrote:
> Good grief... after all this time, I finally look at the png screen
> captures, and instantly what do I see? A variable that controls filepro's
> behavior exactly as I said since the beginning. PFPT=on tell fp binaries to
> try to use pathrough printing, by default, if possible. Both clients are
> setting PFPT=on, both clients are setting TERM=scoansi.
>
> For passthrough printing from filepro to work, several things must all be:
> * The termcap entry that matches $TERM must include PN and PS caps which
> work on that terminal. In filepro, the termcap entry is built up from two
> files, /etc/termcap and $PFDATA/$PFDIR/fp/termcap (or could also be
> specified entirely in an environment variable $TERMCAP which overrides the
> termcap files)
>
> * The terminal must actually recognize those escape codes from the PN and
> PS termcap caps, and do something with the data collected in between the
> printer-on and printer-off codes. IE, if the terminal software has a config
> option for what to do with passthrough print data, you might have to
> actively configure it to say what printer it should send the print data to,
> else it might simply eat the data and do nothing with it.
>
> * The destination that the terminal software sends the data to, must be
> able to make sense of PCL5 data. There are a few different ways to arrange
> this. Sometimes there is an option you can set in the printer driver
> properties that says not to mess with the data, just forward it to the
> printer raw. That would/should work as long as the printer itself actually
> understands pcl5. Today, many don't. HP in particular confuses things even
> more by having printer drivers that sometimes silently translate pcl5 from
> an application into pcl6 for the printer, making you think the printer
> supports pcl5 when it really doesn't. In the case of HP, try to look for
> alternative versions of the printer driver, with PCL or PCL5 in the
> driver's name. Remove the currently installed driver and install that
> alternative, and that *might* make passthrough printing from filepro
> through that terminal start working. Alternatively, if the "terminal
> software" is AnzioWin, it has it's own built-in pcl interpreter, and should
> always work with any printer that any other Windows app can print to, since
> it interprets the pcl itself and renders it as graphics and hands the
> bitmap data to windows's native gdi printing interface for windows to
> print, without caring what kind of printer you have as long as you have a
> working windows driver for it, the same as any other windows app does.
>
> You could also try removing PFPT=on from the envirnment, which will cause H
> hardcopy to go to whatever printer is set as default in pfconfig.
>
> Also verify, HOW is TERM getting set to "scoansi"? (and how is PFPT getting
> set to on?)
> Is it being hard-coded in .profile or /etc/profile? Or is it coming from
> the terminal emulator?
> What I'm getting at is, are both terminal client apps really configured to
> emulate sco-ansi?
>
> --
> bkw
>
> On Sun, Oct 28, 2018 at 1:15 PM Rod Caddy via Filepro-list <
> filepro-list at lists.celestial.com> wrote:
>
>> On 10/26/2018 12:51 AM, Brian White via Filepro-list wrote:
>>>> I'm not talking about windows print screen, I'm talking about Hardcopy
>>>> in filePro.
>>>>
>>> I don't know why hardcopy would be any different than any other printing
>>> from fp.
>>>
>>> You also said something about a unix spool not passthrough print. If the
>>> default printer in pfconfig is a unix lp command, then I don't see how
>> the
>>> server knows or cares what os the desktop is running.
>>>
>>> I think the setup is not described in enough detail.
>>>
>>> Log in from one of the win7 machines where printing works, and from the
>>> win10 machine where printing doesn't work.
>>>
>>> Run "set |sort |less" on each. (if you don't have less installed, then
>>> capture and view any other way. pg, more, vi/view etc...)
>>>
>>> Anything different that could affect printing? There are env variables
>> that
>>> affect both the spooler and fp's notions of default printer destination,
>> or
>>> could inadvertantly affect printing in some indirect way like, totally
>>> contrived example:
>>>
>>> The env is set up to do passthrough after all, PFPT=on (or true or
>>> whatever), and your fp/termcap has a scoansi entry that includes PN & PS,
>>> abd only the scoansi entry has it, and TERM or PFTERM is set to scoansi
>> on
>>> most desks, but it's set to something else like xterm on the new desk.
>>>
>>> It's not literally exactly that, because the break key would not be Del,
>>> and you couldn't miss that. It's an example only.
>>>
>>> Are you logging in as the same user on both working and non-working
>> desks?
>>> There is a gotcha with sco osr5 printing where a newly added user might
>> not
>>> have permission to use the printing system at all until you manually add
>>> them in scoadm (or figure out how the default got changed and change it
>>> back, I forget the details myself)
>>>
>>> It could be anything, until you describe the setup more, to remove some
>> of
>>> the infinite possibilities.
>>>
>>> Follow the trail from fp yo the printer. What is fp going to try to do
>> when
>>> you say Y to hardcopy? You have to look at all fp env vars to determine
>>> that. For instance, the PFCONFIG var, if it exists, says where to load
>> the
>>> fp config file from, which may override the file pointed to by fppath
>> vars.
>>> So, it's possible for two different desks to load two entirely different
>>> config fles, which may contain 2 entirely different sets of pfprinter and
>>> other variables.
>>>
>>> Now you hopefully know what fp should try to do, next depends on what
>> that
>>> was. Was pfprinter the same fp printer name like printer1 on both? Was
>> the
>>> definition of printer1 the same on both? was PFPT either on or off or
>>> absent the same on both? Was the defintion of printer1 a normal valid lp
>>> command line? Can you successfully use that same lp command, as that same
>>> user, from a shell prompt, on both?
>>>
>> Since this issue makes no since, I thought I would add some more to it.
>> After Brian's suggestions, I decided to go back and start from the
>> beginning and redo all my tests and the additional things he suggested
>> to make sure I was not losing my mind. So here was my procedure and as
>> a reminder what I am using:
>>
>> SCO 3.2.5.0.6 i386
>> Filepro 4.05.08K7D4
>> AlphaCom Terminal Emulation
>> Windows 7 on all PCs except 1 which is Windows 10
>> BTW, this is *not* a new user to the system.
>>
>> 1. Logged in as user on the W10 PC to the Unix system and into Filepro.
>> Viewed a record in 3 or 4 different files and pressed H for hardcopy and
>> nothing prints to the system printer. Pressed F to print a form,
>> selected the form format that I wanted and it did not print to the
>> system printer. AlphaCom has a printer icon where you can print what is
>> on the screen to any printer that is defined on the PC. I printed to
>> the system printer and to a local printer what was on the screen,
>> essentially a hardcopy of the record on the screen. That's all fine and
>> good but still unable to print the form.
>>
>> 2. Logged in as the same user on a W7 PC to the Unix system and into
>> Filepro. Viewed a record in 3 or 4 different files and pressed H for
>> hardcopy and it prints to the system printer as it should. Pressed F to
>> print a form, selected the form format that I wanted and it printed to
>> the system printer as it should. Used the AlphaCom printer icon and
>> printed to the system printer and to a local printer what was on the
>> screen, essentially a hardcopy of the record on the screen.
>>
>> 3. Per Brian's suggestion, I logged in on the Windows 10 PC to the Unix
>> system and did a set|sort> env.txt. The list below is what I got back.
>>
>> Windows 10 Env User1
>>
>> 4. Per Brian's suggestion, I logged in on the Windows 7 PC to the Unix
>> system, using the same user login, and did a set|sort> env.txt. The
>> list below is what I got back.
>>
>> Windows 7 Env User1
>>
>> In this case the only difference I see is COLUMNS=80 and LINES=25. Bare
>> in mind, that this is the same user on the system and depending on which
>> system I log in from, W7 or W10, one prints one does not. Because I am
>> logging into the same user account, I am using the same menus, the same
>> config files, the same printers. Everything is exactly the same as far
>> as Unix, filePro, and AlphaCom are concerned.
>>
>> What I have not done is use a different emulator on the W10 PC, simply
>> ran out of time. I will be going back to the client on Monday to try
>> that. If that does not work I am truly at a loss. I welcome any
>> feedback that you may be able to offer.
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>> Pro-Set Systems Logo <www.pro-set.com> Rod Caddy
>> Pro-Set Systems
>> rcaddy at pro-set.com
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>
> --
> bkw
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Regards,
....Bob Rasmussen, President, Rasmussen Software, Inc.
personal e-mail: ras at anzio.com
company e-mail: rsi at anzio.com
voice: (US) 503-624-0360 (9:00-6:00 Pacific Time)
fax: (US) 503-624-0760
web: http://www.anzio.com
street address: Rasmussen Software, Inc.
10240 SW Nimbus, Suite L9
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