Re: Mail Merge on Linux-390

2001-12-05 Thread Post, Mark K

I would suggest compiling the FORTRAN program on Linux, direct its output to
a file, and then run the lpr command against it.

Mark Post

-Original Message-
From: Rod Clayton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2001 12:44 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Mail Merge on Linux-390


I need to mail merge a letter that then gets printed on my VSE line printer.
We have been using an old Fortran program for this.

Does anyone have an example of how to do this on Linux?

Thanks,
Rod
--
Rod Clayton KA3BHY
Systems Programmer
Howard County Public Schools
[EMAIL PROTECTED]



Re: Mail Merge on Linux-390

2001-12-05 Thread Rod Clayton

Does the gf77 compiler support the fortran 4 language level?

Thanks,
Rod

  I need to mail merge a letter that then gets printed on my
 VSE line printer.
 We have been using an old Fortran program for this.

If you've got the source to the Fortran program and you don't want to change
anything, the steps will look something like this:

Install the gf77 compiler on Linux.
FTP the Fortran source to Linux and the data files and compile the Fortran
with gf77 program.f
If the program uses unit number-based I/O you'll need to read the GF77 docs
to indicate how to associate files with unit numbers, or modify the Fortran
to explicitly open the file and associate it with a unit number.
Run the program.
Print the output with LPR.

If you don't mind some additional changes (and want a nicer looking letter),
you may want to modify your Fortran program to emit troff commands (troff is
a text formatter like DCF) to make the letters and then postprocess the
output file with troff.  troff will allow you to use all the features of
your printer, produce Postscript or PCL output, and generate a lot of useful
other stuff.  There are macro packages included with troff (I'd suggest
using the mm macros-- they're easy and well documented.) Your output letter
might look like:

.MT 5
.ND date of letter
.WA writers name
return address
.WE
.IA
recipients address
.IE
.LO RN  in reference string
.LO AT attention line
.LO SA salutation
.LO SJ subject line
.LT
.P
text of the letter with .P on a line by itself between paragraphs
.FC
text of closing

and then you run the output file through 'troff -mm output.file | dvips |
lpr -Pyour fave printer' and you get a very nicely formatted letter to print
on your postscript printer. If you want plain text, use dvitty instead of
dvips.  The MM macros do the work of formatting and constructing the letter.
See the ATT Documentor's Workshop manuals or man mm for details.

-- db


--
Rod Clayton KA3BHY
Systems Programmer
Howard County Public Schools
[EMAIL PROTECTED]