                    *****************************
                    *                           *
                    *        LinePrinter        *
                    *           V1.0            *
                    *                           *
                    *         (c) 1995          *
                    *                           *
                    *      Christian Witt       *
                    *      Jakob-Nein-Str.20c   *
                    *      91056 Erlangen       *
                    *                           *
                    *****************************


1. What is LinePrinter ?
========================

Well, quite simply: LinePrinter (in the following just called "LPR" for 
simplicity) prints ASCII files via GDOS. LPR arose from the need to print 
Pure-C listings easily via GDOS. During this one can set the GDOS driver, 
the font as well as some formatting parameters.
LPR is particularly useful for people working with MagiCMac who only have 
an Apple printer connected. They can then print ASCII text again simply 
via LPR and the NVDI GDOS driver "MACPRN.SYS".


2. Legal
========

"I won't say a word without my lawyer!"



3. Distribution conditions
==========================

LPR is Public Domain, everyone may copy it, no one has to!
Distribution is permitted explicitly if the following files are included 
unchanged with it:

  * LPR.RSC:  The resource file
  * LPR.PRG:  The program
  * LPR.TXT:  The text that you are currently reading.

Distribution in mail-boxes is permitted, inclusion in PD collections only 
if the diskette doesn't cost more than 10 DM.

If you are pleased with LPR and also use it, then please send me a 
postcard :-)
If you don't like it then I don't wish to know :-(

If you have suggestions for improvements, bug reports, observations or 
comments, then please let me know:

  Christian Witt
  Jakob-Nein-Str. 20c
  91056 Erlangen
  e-mail: Christian_Witt@N.maus.de


4. System requirements and installation
=======================================

First of all it is imperative that you have a computer, and that even 
has to be TOS-compatible. A PC is of no use to you, neither is the new 
coffee machine with Fuzzy Logic control!!

A GDOS with vector font support should also be installed, for instance 
NVDI from version 3.x on (highly recommended:-) ) or SpeedoGDOS. If there 
is considerable interest in bitmap font support then I might perhaps 
incorporate it some time in the future.

Just copy the files LPR.PRG and LPR.RSC somewhere to your hard disk, and 
that's it! It's best to put LPR on the desktop as an icon, then you can 
simply drag text files to it, which will then be printed. When launched 
for the first time LPR creates an INF file, so it may take a little 
longer, but don't worry: Subsequent launches will be at an almost 
ridiculous speed!



5. Operation
=============


You can print out ASCII files in two ways:

  1.) Simply drag the files onto LPR and LPR will print these files 
  without showing its menu bar, and will also terminate automatically 
  after printing.
  If you hold down the "SHIFT" key while starting the program, then LPR 
  will pause before printing. You can then select the font, the printer
  etc. The files will only be printed after you quit LPR again.

  2.) Start LPR normally, then select the menu entry "Print" in the 
  "File" menu. You can then choose the file to be printed in the file 
  selector that appears.


The menus:

  * "FILE" Menu:

    "Print..." : Prints a file.

    "Abort": If you have started LPR by dragging files to its icon (or 
    its name in a window) and held down the "SHIFT" key during this, you 
    can use "Abort" to quit LPR without the files being printed. If you 
    launched LPR with a double-click then "Abort" has the same effect as 
    "Quit".

    "Quit" : Terminates LPR. If you started LPR with a command line or 
    passing a file to it then the specified files will still be printed.


  * "Options" Menu:

    "Save parameters": Saves all settings in the LPR.INF file.

    "Load driver": Opens all available GDOS drivers and stores 
    information about them in LPR.INF. Normally you will only need to 
    use this menu entry if you wish to make some changes to the GDOS 
    drivers after the first start of LPR.

    "Printer..." : Here you can select the GDOS driver to which LPR is to 
    output the files.

    "Font.." : Here you can select the font to be used, its size in 
    points, the text style and the slant (note that positive values for 
    this will produce a backward slant, so if you want the usual 
    "italic" type slope you will have to use negative values). Each font 
    is preceded by an identifier of the font type: "S" means Speedo, "T" 
    True-Type and "1" Type 1. An "M" signifies a non-proportional font.


    "Format..." : Here you can perform some rudimentary text formatting 
    to, say, print out listings containing real tabs in a sensible way.
    In the "Tab" field you can set the tab width. You have two options 
    for this:
      1.) Fixed tabs every x characters or centimetres (you can choose 
      the measurement unit further below). Note that you have to enter 
      all four digits here - if necessary with leading zeros. (This is a 
      feature, not a bug :-) )
      2.) Free tabs. For this you enter the various tab positions in the 
      associated edit field, separated by commas. So an input of "10,7,8"
      means that the frist tab will be placed at 10 units (whether cm or 
      character widths), the second 7 further on and the third another 8 
      units on.

    You can select the measurement unit for the tabs with the two radio 
    buttons below: With "cm as unit" you select centimetres (anything 
    else would be rather illogical :-) ) and with "Character width as 
    unit" you choose the width of a character as the unit for the tabs.
    The second setting is of course much more practical: If you alter the 
    font size then nothing will change in the formatting, as it is only 
    calculated relative to the character width.
    If you have "Use average width" active (crossed) (but please only 
    one cross at a time) then the average width of a character will be 
    calculated to obtain the tab positions (naturally only if you have 
    chosen "Character width as unit"). This is quite useful when you
    are working with proportional fonts. In that case the width of the 
    widest character in the font would be used otherwise for calculating 
    tab spacing, and that can be quite wide! The more useful setting here 
    is to activate "Use average width". With non-proportional fonts this 
    setting has no effect.

    With "Convert to tabs after x spaces" you can also specify from how 
    many following spaces onwards a tab will be set. This allows you to 
    print texts that have been formatted with space characters instead of 
    tabs even with a proportional font without losing the formatting (say
    a report of the Phnix databank). A useful setting for this is "2", 
    so that single space characters will not be replaced - only if two or 
    more spaces follow each other will this be turned into a tab.

    Finally you can set the left margin in centimetres (again all four 
    digits have to be input) and whether a form-feed should occur after 
    each page or not. At the end of printing a form-feed will eject the 
    sheet anyway.


6. Outlook
==========

Soon there may be a quite small mini-version of LPR, which runs only 
under MagiC, but otherwise offers the same functions.

--------
English translation by Peter West, DDP.
xlator@cix.co.uk