Subject: Printer Configuration

From: Edward Morykwas <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 4 May 1995 17:20:09 -400 (EDT)

Greetings--
	I'd love to be able to print my incoming e-mail on paper using
Pine, but I can't seem to find the right configuration!
	My system is not exotic: an IBM-compatible 486 with an HP Deskjet
540 printer.  Could anyone help me get set up correctly?
	Many, many thanks,
	--Ed

	  Edward Morykwas       [email-masked]       Troy, Michigan

---

From: [email-masked] (Jonathan and DearOldDad)
Date: 5 May 1995 02:29:01 GMT

Edward Morykwas ([email-masked]) wrote:

: 	I'd love to be able to print my incoming e-mail on paper using
: Pine, but I can't seem to find the right configuration!
: 	My system is not exotic: an IBM-compatible 486 with an HP Deskjet
: 540 printer.  Could anyone help me get set up correctly?

Ed: Put your email on-screen and type Y for prYnt.  Don't blame me, I 
didna have nothin to do with the command sets, just another frustrated 
user tryin to learn Greek.  If it doesn't work, make sure you have your 
printer config set to #1 attached to ansi.  If it skips lines (which it 
probably will if ya got one o those high speed video cards and modems) 
set your modem to a lower speed (like 1200 or 2400) because you see the 
pine prYnt command is not really a Print command afterall, but it's 
really a screen capture utility, so ya have to slow your screen down.

Re-reading this, I realize it's probably very confusing, so if you have 
any questions, please feel free to e-mail me and/or follow up to this 
post.  The persons who wrote the pine program assumed that we were all 
unix,  BYE.
                                            /\  /~~\/\      /\
John (aka DearOldDad)                  /\  /  \/   /  \  /\/\ \  /\
                                  /\  /  \/   /   /    \/POCONO MTNS  PA
DearOldDad:The older I get, the smarter I used to be./\ \/ [email-masked]
  Jonathan:Kids are people too; Have guitar, will travel.\  /\ \ \/\ \
Thought for the day:           /   /   /   /   /   /   /  \/  \ \/  \/\
    If you ASCII silly question, then you'll get a silly ANSI!_\/____\_\

---

From: David L Miller <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 5 May 1995 10:36:50 -0700 (PDT)

No, the print command in Pine is not a screen capture utility.  The
problem is that an unfortunately large number of communication packages
have broken or non-existant implementations of ANSI printer controls. 
Pine has a very simple procedure for printing.  First, it sends an escape
sequence to switch output to the printer, then it sends the text, then it
sends the sequence to switch back to the screen.  A properly functioning
ANSI emulation will not affect the display while printing. 

|\ |  |\/|  David L. Miller    [email-masked]  (206) 685-6240
|/ |_ |  |  Software Engineer, Pine Development Team   (206) 685-4045 (FAX)
University of Washington, Networks & Distributed Computing, JE-20
4545 15th Ave NE, Seattle WA 98105, USA

On 5 May 1995, Jonathan and DearOldDad wrote:

> Date: 5 May 1995 02:29:01 GMT
> From: Jonathan and DearOldDad <[email-masked]>
> To: [email-masked]
> Subject: Re: Printer Configuration
>

---

From: DearOldDad <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 6 May 1995 00:42:38 -0400 (EDT)

> ANSI emulation will not affect the display while printing. 

Hhummmmm ... I think the problem is that you assume we (Edward who asked
the original question, and I) have a printer attached to the computer
which is running PINE (or that we're running PC PINE).  Not so; In my case
(and I think also in Ed's) we are on a dial-up connection via modem to an
internet provider runing unix (in my case BSD) PINE.  I am (as is he)
using a 486 desktop PC with a printer attached to LPT1.  I am (don't know
about him) running under Windows, and using Widows Terminal as the
communication package..  I am on a basic ASYNC connection, no graphics.  I
have my PINE Setup to print to attached-to-ansi. 

OK, now here's the problem.  When I choose Y (prYnt) it in fact DOES
scroll my screen, and since I have a fast modem connection (14400 at
present, I could go 28800 but my server can't handle it yet) the printout
which starts 2 or 3 seconds later, has a lot of missing lines, sometimes
even broken right in the middle of a line. 

A month or so ago, I was helping a friend set up his account on his 
computer, and he has a slow (2400) modem and his prYnt command worked 
fine, so I said to myself, 'self, maybe it's the screen scrolling too 
fast that's causing my problem', and sure enough when I got back and 
slowed mine down, it worked OK, actually works even better at 1200.  Now 
I don't know if my original reply which called it 'screen capture' was 
the correct terminology, but in effect that's what it seems to be doing.

All I was trying to do was tell ED how to make it work, with what he had 
available, even though it's sort of a homemade solution.

Is there a better way to do it?  For example is there some command string 
I could put under PINE setup outher than the default (lpr) which would 
direct it to MY printer?  I don't think so, but ??  The reason I say I 
don't think so, is that seems to want a unix command which my PC will not 
understand running windows or dos.  Or would a better communications 
package (other than windows terminal) help.  I have CoMit available, I 
tried it once, didn't like it, and took it off, but I could reinstall it.

Thanks for any help you might give on this.

John (aka DearOldDad)

---

From: Terry Gray <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 6 May 1995 08:14:57 -0700 (PDT)

John,
David was not assuming that your printer was attached to the 
machine running Pine.  In fact, the whole purpose of "attached-to-ansi"
mode is to deal with exactly the hardware configuration you describe;
however, you must:

 o have a communication program on the PC that understands ansi printer
   escape sequences.

 o pay careful attention to flow-control issues.

There's no screen capture involved, and if there was, that would be a
function of your comm program rather than Pine. If, when you print from Pine
using "attached-to-ansi" and you see the text on your PC screen, you
assuredly do *not* have a communications program that fully understands ansi
printer escapes. 

If some things print, but you lose data, especially on longer messages, 
that almost always means there is a flow-control problem somewhere.
See the Pine FAQ for more details on printing problems...
 (Send a msg to [email-masked] to get a copy.)

-teg