D3 and mvBase

 View Only
  • 1.  U2 BASIC code example for PCL 6 interface

    ROCKETEER
    Posted 15 days ago

    Looking for U2 BASIC coding example for PCL 6 interface.  Thanks Lou 



    ------------------------------
    lou tur
    Senior Sales Engineer
    Rocket Internal - All Brands
    St Petersburg FL US
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: U2 BASIC code example for PCL 6 interface

    Posted 14 days ago
    Edited by Peter Cheney 14 days ago

    Hi Lou,

    One thing I always recommend for PCL programming is to always senc a soft reset ESC:'E' to the printer prior issuing any further changes. This will reset the printer to the configured defaults that you have set via the control panel. Also recommend sending a reset at the end of each job which will cause the printer to flush and print the remnants of its buffer and eject the last page.

    The following is a quick and dirty and there are more elegant and complicated ways to do this but I hope it is useful to you. If you want to format each line then prepend the format code to the text.

    e.g. print BOLD:'this is bold text':NOBOLD:'this is normal text'

    Cheers,
    Peter

    * Set output to the desired filename in &HOLD& (printfile.txt)
    * Change the SETPTR command to suit your own printing environment
    cmd = 'SETPTR 0,132,66,0,0,3,NHEAD,BRIEF,NOEJECT,NFMT,BANNER printfile.txt'
    execute cmd capturing output
    
    * Define the codes to use. Source more from a google search for 'PCL6 Commands Reference'
    ESC = char(27)
    SOFTRESET = ESC:'E'
    PORTRAIT = ESC:'&l0O'
    LANDSCAPE = ESC:'&l1O'
    FIXEDWIDTH = ESC:'(s0P'
    PROPORTIONAL = ESC:'(s1P'
    BOLD = ESC:'(s3B'
    NOTBOLD = ESC:'(s0B'
    IBMPCCHARSET = ESC:'(10U'
    6LPI = ESC:'&l6D' ;* line printer lines per page
    10CPI = ESC:'(s10H' ;* 10 characters per inch across the page
    EJECTPAGE = ESC:'&l0H'
    
    * Direct output to the print spooler
    printer on
    print SOFTRESET
    * Set for line printer
    print LANDSCAPE:IBMPCCHARSET:6LPI:10CPI
    pageCount = 1
    lineCount = 1
    bNoMore = @false
    jobHeading = 'some heading as at '
    print jobHeading:timedate():' ':pageCount
    loop until bNoMore do
       * read/obtain stuff to print and format into a line
       line = 'stuff to print'
       print line
       lineCount += 1
       * check here if any more to print
       * if no more to print then bNoMore = @true
       if lineCount > 66 then
          print EJECTPAGE
          pageCount += 1
          print jobHeading:timedate():' ':pageCount
          lineCount = 1
       end
    repeat
    print SOFTRESET
    printer off    ;* turn off spooler output
    printer close  ;* close the print file
    
    * At this point there will be a file in &HOLD& called printfile.txt that
    * can be reassigned via the spooler to send to your PCL6 printer 
    * Or it can be distribute via your favourite transport mechanism (sendmail, sftp, scp, awscli etc)
    



    ------------------------------
    Peter Cheney
    Developer and Systems Superstar
    Firstmac
    Brisbane Qld Australia
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: U2 BASIC code example for PCL 6 interface

    ROCKETEER
    Posted 14 days ago

    I've got some PCL5 subroutines for D3. Interested?



    ------------------------------
    Brian S. Cram
    Principal Technical Support Engineer
    Rocket Software
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: U2 BASIC code example for PCL 6 interface

    ROCKETEER
    Posted 14 days ago
    Hi Brian,

    Yes I would like to see the PCL5 example too. I don’t think the PCL 6 example is valid.
    Thanks
    Lou




  • 5.  RE: U2 BASIC code example for PCL 6 interface

    PARTNER
    Posted 11 days ago
      |   view attached

    Hi Lou,

    Here's another example of PCL5 code - written 26 years ago! Hopefully there's some useful bits there....

    Cheers

    Tom



    ------------------------------
    Tom Power
    Owner
    Power Business Systems
    Benoni ZA
    ------------------------------

    Attachment(s)

    txt
    setprt.txt   7 KB 1 version


  • 6.  RE: U2 BASIC code example for PCL 6 interface

    ROCKETEER
    Posted 14 days ago
      |   view attached

    I attached a .txt file with all the subroutines I could find. Give 'em a look and let me know if you need anything further (like an example program calling the subs?? probably not...).



    ------------------------------
    Brian S. Cram
    Principal Technical Support Engineer
    Rocket Software
    ------------------------------

    Attachment(s)

    txt
    PCL5subs.txt   9 KB 1 version


  • 7.  RE: U2 BASIC code example for PCL 6 interface

    PARTNER
    Posted 11 days ago

    One thing that I do not see mentioned is the major difference between PCL5 and PCL6.  PCL5 and prior versions were ASCII-based languages whereas PCL6 is compiled and sends a binary file to the printer.  I haven't found a good way to convert PCL5 to PCL6 or found documentation on the PCL6 source language or how to compile it.  If anyone knows more about that I would appreciate sharing.

    Dick Thiot

    Maverick Systems



    ------------------------------
    Richard Thiot
    President
    Maverick Systems
    McKinney TX US
    ------------------------------