[Simh] Printer on TOPS-10

[Timothe Litt]

On 21-Mar-18 08:24, Jordi Guillaumes Pons wrote:
>
> Jordi Guillaumes i Pons
> jg at jordi.guillaumes.name <mailto:jg at jordi.guillaumes.name>
> HECnet: BITXOW::JGUILLAUMES
>
>
>
>> On 21 Mar 2018, at 13:19, Timothe Litt <litt at ieee.org
>> <mailto:litt at ieee.org>> wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 21-Mar-18 07:02, Jordi Guillaumes Pons wrote:
>>> Some years ago I wrote a note to myself:
>>>
>>> - Enable printing:
>>>
>>> 1) Create file SYS:LPFORMS:INI with the following content:
>>>
>>> NORMAL:ALL/BANNER:01/HEADER:01/LINES:66/WIDTH:132/TRAILER:01
>>>
>>> 2) In OPR: SHUTDOWN PRINTER 0
>>> 3) In OPR: START PRINTER 0/DEVICE:LPT0
>>>
>>>
>>> I don’t remember what problem I was trying to solve, but right now
>>> this file exists and printing works. Hope it can help you.
>>>
>>>
>>> Jordi Guillaumes i Pons
>>> jg at jordi.guillaumes.name <mailto:jg at jordi.guillaumes.name>
>>> HECnet: BITXOW::JGUILLAUMES
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> LPFORM.INI tells LPTSPL how to process forms (the paper stock on
>> which a job is printed).
>> The default form is "Normal".  Form names with the same 4 initial
>> characters use the same stock; no operator intervention is required
>> to change among them. (This is used to allow specifying soft
>> parameters, such as the number of banner pages, per job.)  If a job
>> requires different stock, the operator is notified.
>
> IIRC the problem was the print spooler didn’t got started on boot and
> a command to tell OPR it had the default form mounted was required to
> start printing. Defining LPFORMS.INI avoided that problem and the
> print spooler started automatically. Does it make sense to you?
>
> Blurred memories also tell me there was some alignement test involved.
> After telling OPR the printer had the form mounted it asked to confirm
> the form was correctly aligned.
>
> Doh, memory…
>
>
>
Not exactly.  The default form is NORMAL.  The printer is started by
OPR; as long as INITIA runs, it will start OPR, which will take
SYSTEM.CMD.  SYSTEM.CMD is what configures the galactic components.

LPTSPL is started by QUASAR whenever it's needed - that is, a stream is
started and there's a job in the queue (or has been recently).  QUASAR
maintains the printer state, so LPTSPL doesn't have to stick around when
idle.  It's possible that LPTSPL prompts for a form if LPFORM.INI
doesn't exist - I believe there's a default LPFORM.INI on the
distribution tapes, and I don't recall running without one in a VERY
long time :-)

Alignment is invoked when the mounted stock changes and /ALIGN is
specified in LPFORM.INI; it's used to match the VFU to the paper - e.g.,
when printing labels, or pre-printed forms (e.g. invoices, checks,
greenbar). 

It is likely that that without LPFORM.INI, LPTSPL conservatively asks
for alignment.  As I said, it's a good idea to have one.

However, the OP wasn't getting that far - the printer status shown is
"not available", indicating that the stream is assigned to a device that
doesn't exist or is assigned to another job.  The most likely cause is
failing to enable it in SimH.

I'm not inclined to read the code to refresh my memory of what happens
without LPFORM.INI - having one is a good idea, and I don't think it
relates to the OP's issue.


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