It sounds to me like there are extra linefeeds (LFs) being introduced
somewhere in the process.
Printers like the dot-matrix Epson printer you are migrating away from
make use of control characters to do things like advance the paper and
move the print head around. One of these control characters is a
linefeed (LF), which advances the paper forward one line. Another is a
carriage return (CR), which moves the printhead from wherever it
currently is, to the beginning of the line.
During normal printing, when the end of a line is reached, both a CR and
an LF are needed to prepare the printer for printing the next line.
Issues like the one you are seeing arise because not all computer
systems do the same thing at the end of a line. An MS-DOS or Windows
system records a CR/LF combination as an end of line. A UNIX system
typically uses just an LF. EBCDIC systems get around this whole issue by
having a specific
character for newline (NL), and of course the idea of the fixed record
length file eliminates the need for an end-of-line character entirely.
If you were to send just straight text from an ASCII system to a printer
(ignoring any intermediary subsystem which might introduce its own
carriage control commands), MS-DOS text would print correctly, as you
would expect a printed document to look. UNIX text would print like
this:
this is the first line
this is the second line
this is the third line
because there is no CR telling the printer to move the print head back
to the beginning of the line---just a LF to advance the paper.
An old-school Macintosh uses just a CR character as an end-of-line. If
you were to send text formatted this way to a printer (again, ignoring
any intermediary subsystems), the resulting hardcopy would have
everything printed on one line, as there is no LF to advance the paper.
As a way to deal with this diversity, printers like the Epson you are
migrating away from have configuration settings for "automatic LF after
CR". Enabling this option when connecting the printer to an Apple allows
text to be printed normally, as the printer automatically performs a
linefeed after receiving a CR, without having to explicitly be told to
do so.
If you enable this option when connecting the printer to an MS-DOS PC,
you get double-spaced text, because the printer performs an automatic
linefeed after receiving the CR, and then performs a second LF as
instructed by the PC. UNIX systems remain unaffected because the printer
never receives a CR.
Now.
That being said this obviously has very little to do with the mechanics
of laser printing, though because people expect to be able to print text
files this way using laser printers, the behavior must be simulated in
software on the printer. I do not know if modern laser printers still
have the configuration option to enable or disable the automatic LF
after CR, but this is something to look at. The simplest solution to
this problem is to determine whether the two printers are configured the
same in this regard, and if not, configure the laser printer the same
way as the Epson dot matrix was. If the HP laser printers are not
dedicated to this task (i.e. they are used for other print jobs) you may
find this approach disruptive to other print jobs sent to these
printers.
If they are already configured the same (or may not be made so), you
will need to look to other intermediary pieces of software where these
LFs and CRs may be manipulated beyond what appears directly in the text
file itself; for example, the UNIX printing system takes care of sending
the necessary CRs to the printer, even though they do not appear in the
text. The EXTRA print server you were using may have been doing
something similar, or even possibly removing extra carriage control
characters. If this is the case, you will need to simulate elsewhere
whatever it's doing... RSCS may have some carriage control options which
may be of some use in this endeavor. It's possible that there are LFs in
your data which were introduced as a workaround for an issue similar to
one described above... in that case they could be removed and your
problem would be solved.
Hopefully this information will help you figure out where to look for
the answer. Good luck!
ok
r.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jan Canavan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: Friday, August 10, 2007 11:31 AM
> To: LINUX-390@VM.MARIST.EDU
> Subject: Help: Change from VTAM print to LPR PRINTING
>
> I have not done this, so I can't help Sharon, has anyone else?
>
>
>
> Nothing/no one is making any difference. ARGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!
>
> Here is the current scenerio:
> We have VSE, VTAM, IDMS and VTAM plus a 2216 in the VM
> environment on a MP3000-H50. We have a report that is printed
> on an EPSON dot matrix printer, that is attached to a PC that
> is running EXTRA Printer Server. The report is generated in
> VSE IDMS, sent to the PC with the EXTRA Print Server (which
> is cable attached to the dot matrix printer). The report
> prints on a 8.5 x 11 3-ply form and prints from edge to edge
> (about 84 print positions) on the 8.5 edge.
>
> We are migrating to the Z9, would like to eliminate (support
> will drop at the end of this calendar year) the 2216 so we
> want to replace the dot matrix with a network attached
> printer (HP 8150 series since this has edge to edge override
> feature). We are able to print from edge to edge but it
> seems for EVERY data line, it will print a blank line. We
> have tried INSERTS and SCRIPs, all attempts don't work.
>
> We only have 2 of these printers but they are Payroll
> printers so we can migrate until we find a solution...we've
> already missed our first migration deadline.
>
> ANY help will be GREATLY appreciated!!
> Sharon Tong-Robinson
> SF PUC, 415.551.4383
>
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
> Jan Canavan
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> VSE/VM SYSTEMS PROGRAMMER
>
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