Hello Glenn -
After the recent discussion about printing/exporting from ARACHNE171UE,
I was struck by the inconsistent treatment of various capture functions,
namely:
P = print as text
ALT-P = print as Postscript
CTL-P = print as BMP or JPG
PrntScrn
Quite some time ago you sent me a fix for the "print as text" option
and which has now been incorporated into the new 171UE. I can't quite
remember exactly what is was, but it involved making a change in
MIME.CFG.
Since I am not sufficiently sophisticated to be able to interpret all
of that (in spite of the syntax lesson at the end), I will relate here
what I have found out about the capture functions. As you will see, rather
similar things are treated quite differently.
I will start with ALT-P (print to Postscript) because that works
probably somewhat like the others were intended to, namely:
as soon as ALT-P is hit, a _4prt.ps file is created in the main Arachne
directory irrespective of whether "Export" is selected or not. When "Export"
is selected, the Postscript file is copied to the "Export" directory
with filename "output.ps" or whatever name the user changes it to.
The only problems here are that the _4prt.ps file is NOT ERASED from
the main Arachne directory. And, probably unrelated, one cannot exit
from Arachne with ALT-X from that screen (you have to go back or to another
screen). Alt-X gets you out of Arachne from all the other capture screens.
In my view similar functions should behave similarly. This is the only one
that actually "exports" to the EXPORT subdirectory. And perhaps some
indication should be given where to find it (e.g. "Done. Your file
is in the EXPORT subdirectory")
When the PRNTSCRN key is hit, a BMP graphic file called _4prt.bmp is
immediately written in the main Arachne directory as for Alt-P (and in
fact, as for all the capture functions). Unfortunately, the copied screen
also immediately appears on the terminal with no indication of what has
happened, so that the real Arachne header and the IMAGE of the real
header (which, of course, doesn't respond to mouse clicks) are seen. If
a beginner somehow manages to exit that screen by clicking on the real
buttons, he/she still has no way of knowing that the prntscreen image
is _4prt.bmp in the main directory (unless he/she is smart enough to
have put a line under the old files so he can easily see new, added
files; if not, or if the new file writes in the midst of all the
other files, good night!).
CRTL-P (for producing graphic images of the WHOLE on-screen page also
produces a _4prt.bmp file which, when "Export" is clicked, is copied to
a file called "page.bmp" (or another name if the default name is changed)
in the Arachne main directory. Clicking on "Convert to JPG" will convert
the _4prt.bmp file to _4prt.jpg BUT NOT if it was previously saved/exported
to page.bmp!! Perhaps the buttons could be arranged so that it is clear that
ONLY ONE can be clicked and you EITHER export the bmp file OR convert
it to JPG. It would also be good to have a chance to name the JPG file,
otherwise, with the _4prt.jpg name, the beginner is in the same pickle as
described above. None of the Print-JPG, Print BMP, or Save-as-ZBM buttons
responded for me (DR-DOS 7.02). Maybe it was my system, but if they are not
(yet?) functional, they shouldn't be there, in my view.
Hitting the P key also immediately writes a _4prt.txt file in the main
Arachne directory, which however, if "exported" to the default page.txt,
is NOT erased, producing two identical text files. The Preview and Print
buttons work ok on my printer (HP Deskjet 540). However, the "Split-Digest"
functions seems to me not to belong there since they pertain to e-mail
digests. When using Arachne on a RAM disk (drive D:) and not using Insight,
clicking on this button sends me to C: leaving behind a text file called
_4prt.txt (surprise!) on drive D:. This will be most confusing to a beginner.
In sum, I think MIME.CFG should be altered (and maybe rearranged a little
so that like functions are grouped together) so that P, ALT-P, CTR-P, and
PRNTSCRN all send their output to the EXPORT directory (else what is its
purpose?); give a message that something has happened and that the output
file is located in the EXPORT directory; and clean up after themselves by
deleting the _4prt.??? files. In other words, the capture functions should
all behave the same way.
I realize that you are putting out brush fires at the moment, and perhaps
you think mine are trivial concerns, but I'm always thinking of
beginners (since I'm not that far from being one myself) and how to
prevent them from responding with the big DEL button (if there were one).
Just a suggestion!
Klaus Hameyer
Burlington, VT (USA)
