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         R E L E A S E   D E S C R I P T I O N

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Module id number: CSS/172
--------------------------

Module name:      PRINTER_TASK
-----------------------------------

Actual release:   04.02            Release date: 860825
-----------------------            --------------------

Previous release: 04.01            Release date: 860422
-----------------------            --------------------


New facilities:
---------------

   >>04.01<<

   The printertask polls the print queue for jobs.
   When a job is found, it is printed, and its entry in the
   print queue file is regularly updated, to log the status
   of the printing.

   Invokation (from Tos):

   RUN PRINTER_TASK {<parameter>}

    <parameter> ::=           "default value"
      I:<file id>             PRINT_QUEUE.A      print queue file
      O:<file id>             @LPD000-INTR*P0    line printer
      C:<file id>             CHAR57.T           huge letter file
      A:<filsys>{,<filsys>}   empty list         alternative file systems
      L:<boolean>             No                 looping on empty queue
      R:<boolean>             Yes                restart active prints
      F:<form>{,<form>}       ANY                forms to print
      U:<integer>             10                 kbytes between update
      M:<printmode>           Normal             print mode
      E:<integer>             8                  end pages
      T:<integer>{,<integer>} 60,600             first timeout,
                                                 subsequent timeout
      P:<integer>             0                  no. of lines per page
                                                 on the printer

    <form>    ::=  <name>
    <filsys>  ::=  <name 1.6>-<name 1.4>
    <boolean> ::=  Yes | No
    <printmode>::=  Normal | Transparent


    The I parameters specifies the print queue file, from which jobs
    shall be taken.

    The O parameter specifies the name of the line printer driver,
    and possibly the port on the driver (the terminal name).

    The C parameter specifies the file containing scripts for huge
    letters.   It must contain 128 «nul»times 7 lines times 5 chars (excl. nl).

    The A parameter specifies possible alternative file systems.
    If omitted, the printer task will only try to find print files via
    the system file system.

    The L parameter specifies, whether the printer task should terminate,
    when the print queue becomes empty.

    The R parameter specifies, whether the printer task should restart
    printing of the files in the print queue, which are marked 'printing',
    when it first scans the print queue.

    The F parameter specifies the form queues, from which the printer
    task should take jobs.  FURTHER, the first form in the form list
    specifies the current paper form in the printer.  Therefore the
    printer task should be re-started with a new form specification
    when the paper is changed in the printer.

    The U parameter specifies the (approximate) number of kilobytes
    to print between updates of the print queue.  It should be set
    according to the printer speed, f.ex. corresponding to an update
    every minute (U:30 for an 600 LPM printer).

    The M parameter specifies the print mode.
    -  In Transparent mode, characters are just passed from the moved
       from the files to be printed onto the line printer driver, and
       no attempt is made to keep track of lines or pages.
    -  In Normal mode, lines and pages is counted, and overprint is
       treated in a special way.  The line count is incremented for each
       newline printed, and the page count is incremented each time a
       formfeed is printed, or each time a pagelength of lines is
       output.
       Backspaces are not printed.  Instead, up to 7 lines of up to 132
       characters is are collected for each physical line (i.e. between
       any two newline/formfeed characters).  These lines are printed,
       separated by carriage-return, when a newline/formfeed is met.
       Only in the Normal mode, the source files can be printerd with
       the LINENO option on.

    The E parameter specifies the number of pages to skip, when the
    print queue is emptied.  In this way, the operator does not need
    to forwardspace the printer to get the paper out. IF he still
    wants to forwardspace, he should skip an EVEN number of pages,
    to ensure that the next front pages folds correctly.

    The T parameter specifies the interval in seconds, between error
    messages on the console, in case of printer offline or failure.
    The default values, '60,600', corresponds to 60 seconds from
    printer offline to the first error report, and 600 seconds between
    the subsequent error reports.   Note, that the printer task is not
    able to tell the hardware state of the printer.  It must therefore
    detect printer-offline condition on the event, that the driver has
    not accepted output for a period.   Thus, this timeout period should
    be specified according to printer speed, especially for slow printers;
    the printer must be able to print 512 bytes within an interval,
    otherwise misleading error reports will be generated.

    The P parameter specifies the number of lines per page, on the printer
    to facilitate the correct skipping of formfeeds, even for default
    form specification (ANY). This is to ensure that the START & END
    page options will produce correct results, even for a file without
    form feeds.

Changes:
________

   >>04.01<<

   a)  The print queue is split into several sub_queues, each
       specifying jobs for a paper form
   b)  The entry in the print queue specifying a job is regularly
       updated by the printer task, to allow the users to see
       the status of the printing, and to facilitate restart
       of printing on a page boundary in the middle of a print.
   c)  One front page is printed for each job.  Its is printed
       on a forward folding page each time, provided that the
       correct paper specification has been given to the
       printer task.

Errors corrected:
-----------------

 >>04.02<<

     The problem of extra line numbers corrected, whenever a formfeed
is met or the line exceeds the maximum width of the current form.
(PR86462)

     The task now prints files from both the forms given as parameters
when invoked. (PR86455)

     It operates in the LOCALPRINTER mode also, MXTOS version 4.2 has been
corrected.
This problem was due to an error in MXTOS version 4.1 and earlier.
MXTOS version 5.1 allows the use of parameters to PRINTER_TASK in
LOCALPRINTER mode.

Reported errors, not corrected:
-------------------------------


CPECRs implemented in current release:PR86462 PR86455
--------------------------------------



Comments:
_________


   To start a line printer driver and a printer task, you may do
   as follows:
        <break>
        To: S
        DO LP.J
        RUN PRINTER_TASK L:YES P:<integer>

     Note:
     _____

       The Printer Task does not start automatically everytime when a
     PRINT command is given. So, the LP.J file must have NOLOCALPRINTER
     instead of the LOCALPRINTER used for earlier versions.

       The Task can be started everytime when the system is booted,
     by including the following command in the CONFIG.J file,

         DO LP.J
         RUN PRINTER_TASK P:<integer> L:YES «a5»
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