EmPress EmPress has several functions. Its primary use is to convert ordinary text files into Press format, and to send the converted files to a Press printing server. Options include the ability to produce a Press file without transmitting it, and to transmit Press files that have been previously produced. Additional features provide for merging several Press page images into a single Press file, and for personalizing individual copies of documents. EmPress can distinguish Press files from text files, so it need not be told whether to convert. As a text file converter, EmPress is intended for formatting program listings and supports only simple formatting operations such as Tab and FormFeed. Bravo trailers are ignored. Joe Maleson wrote the original program. David Boggs made the modifications that allowed transmission of files to printers. Rick Tiberi produced the current version, adding the Press file merger and copy personalization facilities, and curing many problems. Standard Case: To send one or more Press or text files to your default Press printer, using a default font to convert the text files, type: empress file1 file2 file3 ... and read no further. The more general command line to EmPress is: EmPress[/] [/] inputFiles The square brackets denote portions of the command line that are optional and may be omitted. EmPress will print up to 100 input files. Each global switch has a default value which is used if the switch is not explicitly set. To set a switch to 'false' proceed it with a 'minus' sign; to set it to 'true' just mention the switch. Switch Default Function /T true [Transmit] will send the resulting press file to a printer. /number 8 (text files only) tab width -- see below. /H true (text files only) [Headings] will print a heading and page number on each page. /D false (press files only) [Date] will add the machine- readable time stamp to Press files that need them and don't have them. This allows Press files created by old software to print correctly. If your Press file prints with improper line justification and character spacing, try this switch before giving up. ------------ Copyright Xerox Corporation 1980 EmPress December 14, 1977 2 /2 false [Duplex] will format text files for 2-sided printing and inform the server to print the transmitted file duplex. /S false [Secret] will send the current Alto password to the server, requesting that the server not print the files until the password is entered at the server workstation. /W false [Wait] after sending the files, will wait for input from the keyboard to check completion status of the print request. If the user confirms with a RETURN, Empress will check and print the status of the file, if possible. DEL exits from Empress. EmPress December 14, 1977 3 EmPress recognizes a number of optional parameters which can be set from the command line. Parameters set from the command line take precedence over defaults built into the program. Parameter Default Function string/O Swatee [Output] the name of the output file. EmPress uses Swatee unless told otherwise, since the output press file is usually sent to the printer and then discarded. number/C 1 [Copies] the number of copies to print. string/H none [HostName] the name of the printer. This takes precedence over the name following PRESS: in the [HardCopy] section of User.cm. string/I none [Input] the name of an input text file to be formatted and saved or transmitted, or of an input Press file to be transmitted. string/S none [Secret] a password to be sent for confirmation, as the global /S switch above. string/N none [Name] the name of a user for whom the file is being printed, to be sent to the printer for direction to that user's mailbox. string none a string without any switches is assumed to be an input file. The remaining switches apply to text conversion only. number/T 8 [Tab] the width of a tab character in multiples of the width if a space character. string/F Gacha [FontFace] the font to use. You must have 'Fonts. Widths' on your disk. number/P 8 [PointSize] the point size of the font. EmPress December 14, 1977 4 User.Cm Entries The following is a sample User.Cm hardcopy section, configured to use the Menlo Press printing server as the preferred printer: [HARDCOPY] PREFERREDFORMAT: Press EARS: Palo PRESS: Menlo PRINTEDBY: "$" FONT: TIMESROMAN 10 MIR The FONT entry specifies that TimesRoman10i (italic) should be used as a default font instead of Gacha8 (EmPress's default choice). The second, point size argument, and the third, face specification argument are optional. The face argument contains three letters specifying weight (M, B, or L), slope (R or I), and expansion (C, R, or E), respectively. The PRINTEDBY field, if present, specifies the name to be used in the Name field on the break page. The current disk login name will replace the character $. EmPress chooses "$" as a default in the absence of a specification. EmPress December 14, 1977 5 Program operation When EmPress encounters a Press file in the input list, it transmits (or stores) any text file that it is currently converting, then transmits the Press file. A new break page will be printed for each Press file, containing that file's name. EmPress will override the "created by" field of a Press file with a name derived as described above. It will fill in blank file name and date fields with the obvious defaults. If copies are specified in the command line, EmPress will override the number of copies specified in the Press file with the command line value. EmPress uses the file Swatee for temporary storage while converting text for transmission. If in so doing Swatee becomes nearly full, EmPress will suspend formatting, send what has accumulated so far, and then press on. This has two desirable consequences: 1) a very full disk will not run out of space and 2) some pipelining can take place since the printer can munch on the first chunk while EmPress empressifies another. Press File Merging EmPress will merge several one page Press files into a single one page Press file. This allows the outputs of Bravo, Sil, Draw, Markup, etc., to be merged without a separate pass through Markup. One additional text or Press file may also be submitted, and it will be printed following the one page merge result. One invokes the merge feature through one additional global switch, and one additional local switch: Additional Global Switch: /m Merge. All subsequent input files that are not qualified by switches must be single-page Press files. They will be merged to form a single (cover) page in the Press file result, containing all their Press specifications. This switch also conditions Empress to expect the additional local switches, described just below and in the Personalization section. Additional Local Switch: /d Document. This switch may be used to identify an optional main document, when the merge option is used. The file may be a simple text file or a Press file. It will follow the one page merge result in each copy printed. EmPress December 14, 1977 6 Personalization This relatively specialized feature is provided to allow the personalization of individual copies of a document. Each copy of the document might contain, for instance, the name and address of the person for whom it is intended. Up to six lines of personalized information can be specified. This information will replace distinctive "key strings" that have been placed in the cover page (merged) files or in the main document. The key strings must appear in contiguous groups of up to six lines each. The personalized information for the current copy, specified in a paragraph of a special Bravo-format addressee file or in the command line, will replace the key strings in each group, line for line. Thus the personalized information may occur more than once in each document (Dear Mr. PARC/SDD: ... yes, you and all the members of the PARC/SDD household can enjoy the benefits of ...). Lines in the addressee paragraph for which no keys are provided are discarded. The default key is "<", forty hyphens ("-"), then ">". If the string "<--title-->" appears anywhere in the document, the name of the "main" document (the one specified using the "/d" switch) will replace it. The "/m" (merge) global switch must be specified before any of these personalization specification switches are valid. Additional Local Switches: /k Key. The item is a key that replaces the default (see above). /a Addressee. The item is either the name of a Bravo format file containing a list of addressees -- one per paragraph, one line in each paragraph for each key line in the cover page or main document -- or a literal addressee, enclosed in double quotes. In a literal, use hyphens where you wish blanks to appear in the name.