HARDCOPY


Copyright 1987,1988 Ted W. Allen. All rights reserved.


Version 1.41


DISCLAIMER

The author makes no warranties of any kind, either express or implied,
regarding this software, its quality, performance, merchantability, or
fitness for any purpose. In no event shall the author be liable for any
damages, whether direct, indirect, special or consequential arising from the
use or inability to use this program and documentation. The author shall
not be liable for any damage to data or property which may be caused
directly or indirectly by the use of this software and documentation.

IN NO EVENT WILL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY
LOST PROFITS, LOST SAVINGS, OR OTHER INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES
ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM, OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY
ANY OTHER PARTY.




































HARDCOPY v 1.41

Shareware Concept

HARDCOPY is being distributed through electronic rather than traditional
marketing channels. It is NOT free software. You are simply being given
the opportunity to try the program before you buy it. If you find that this
program does not work as indicated here or does not fit your needs, then do
not buy it. If, however, you find the program to be of use to you, then
please send your contribution to the author at the address below. Make
checks payable to Ted W. Allen and send to:

Ted Allen ET AL
P. O. Box 8393
Silver Spring, MD 20907


You are encouraged to share this software with others. You may distribute
this software in any way you see fit provided that:

1) you receive no compensation for distributing the software;
2) the program and documentation are distributed together; and
3) you do not modify the program or documentation.


HARDCOPY v 1.41

The Program

HARDCOPY is a printer utility for ASCII files. It was written primarily for
the programmers, data analysts, and other PC-users who spend much of their
time manipulating ASCII files. HARDCOPY allows the user to print:

the entire ASCII file or selected pages

in normal, compressed, or letter-quality type

with or without a header or footer and

with or without page numbering.


Using HARDCOPY

System Requirements

HARDCOPY requires the following....

- IBM PC compatible computer
- PC-DOS or MS-DOS (version 2.0 or later)
- Epson compatible printer
- Sufficient RAM to hold the program and the file to be printed
- Monochrome or Color Monitor
- An ASCII file with carriage returns and line feeds.


Starting HARDCOPY

These instructions use the following conventions:

- to mean press the return or enter key
[ ] - square brackets to indicate an optional part of the command.


The easiest way to use HARDCOPY is to access the disk drive or directory
that has the program stored on it and enter the command:

HARDCOPY

Menus in the program will then lead you through entering the file name and
printing the file. (See The Menus below)

HARDCOPY can also read the file name from the command line. Thus you may
begin the program with the following type of command:

HARDCOPY filename.ext
or
HARDCOPY [c:\path]filename.ext

You may quit HARDCOPY any time information is requested from you by pressing
the End key.


The Menus

File Name

If you entered a file name on the command line when you started HARDCOPY,
you will not see this menu but a statement indicating the file is being
read. Otherwise, HARDCOPY will request that you enter the file name.

When HARDCOPY requests that you enter a file name you may enter the name of
a file, including an optional path, or press return. When you first begin
HARDCOPY you will need to enter a file name here. You will be prompted
until a valid file name is entered. If you have already read/printed a
file, you may press return when HARDCOPY requests a file name. Pressing
return signals HARDCOPY that you want to use the file that has already been
read into memory.

Pressing Esc while the file name is being requested will erase any
characters you have typed and start you at the beginning of the response
line. Pressing End will terminate the program.


Type Style

HARDCOPY will ask whether you want the file printed in normal, compressed,
or letter-quality type. You may move the cursor with the arrow keys or the
space bar until you reach the option of your choice and press return. You
may also type the first letter of the option of your choice. If you type
the first letter you do not have to press return after it.

The Esc key in this menu acts like a reset button. Pressing Esc while in
this menu will result in your being returned to the file name selection
menu. Pressing End will terminate the program.

This menu only affects the body of the pages being typed. The borders
(header and footer) and any page number are ALWAYS in normal type.


Page Numbering

HARDCOPY will ask whether you want the pages numbered at the top or bottom
or no numbering at all. Again you may move the cursor with the arrow keys
or the space bar to the option of your choice and press return. You may
also select the option by typing the first letter of the option.

The Esc key in this menu acts like a reset button. Pressing Esc while in
this menu will result in your being returned to the file name selection
menu. Pressing End will terminate the program.

Page numbering is always in normal type on the right side of the page. The
program can handle up to 65,000 pages.


Borders

At your option, HARDCOPY will print the file name and date of last update at
the top of each page or will allow you to add either a header or footer to
each page. As before you may move the cursor with the arrow keys or the
space bar to the option of your choice and press return. You may also
select the option by typing the first letter of the option.

Again, the Esc key in this menu acts like a reset button. Pressing Esc
while in this menu will result in your being returned to the file name
selection menu. Pressing End will terminate the program.

You may select a header or a footer but not both. The header or footer can
be up to two lines (80 characters each) in length. The header is the two
lines just above the beginning of the text and just after any page number.
The footer is the two lines immediately following the text and just before
any page number.


Page Printing

At your option, you may print either the entire file or selected pages.
Select the options as in the previous menus by moving the cursor with the
arrow keys (or space bar) to the desired option or by typing the first
letter of the desired option.

Again, the Esc key in this menu acts like a reset button. Pressing Esc
while in this menu will result in your being returned to the file name
selection menu. Pressing End will terminate the program.

Each page in HARDCOPY contains 59 lines of body, the rest being for page
numbers, headers, and footers. If you elect to print the entire file, the
file printing will begin as soon as you have made your selection. Be sure
the printer is properly ALIGNED before making your selection.

If you opt to print a selected page, HARDCOPY will request the page number
you desire. That page will begin printing after it has been found (almost
immediately for most files), so be sure the printer is aligned for the page.
After that page has printed you will be prompted for another page. In this
way you may print many selected pages from the same file with minimum effort.
Pressing the return will return you to the first Page Printing menu and pressing
End will terminate the program.


Suggestions

There are a number of ways to use the features of HARDCOPY. The following
are just a few ideas.

When printing out long program files for documentation and archives, use
page numbering and compressed type. The compressed print leaves plenty of
margin for notes.

For working with data in fixed fields, use a header (or footer) in which the
second line (first line of footer) is a ruler numbering the spaces. You can
only use 80 spaces for your ruler because headers/footers are limited to 80
spaces, though the body of the file printout can be any width your printer
can handle. [A later version will probably get rid of this limitation.]

If you wish to get rid of all borders (headers and footers), select header
(or footer) and hit a carriage return at the prompt for each line.
Obviously you may also get rid of page number by selecting that option.


Revisions

Version 1.4 was the first version publicly distributed. That version would not
write parts of the menus properly on monochrome monitors. Version 1.41 corrects
that problem. I apologize for any inconvenience that may have caused anyone.


Forthcoming

Later versions of this program will probably incorporate some or all of the
following features:

1. preview a selected page on the screen before printing

2. use DOS to allocate memory to allow multitasking

3. allow entry of all options from the command line.

If there are other options you would like to see implemented, you may send a
note to the author at the indicated address. In sending any suggestion,
comment or idea, the sender agrees that all ideas become property of Ted W.
Allen and may be used or not used by Ted W. Allen in any manner without any
obligation or liability to the sender or any other party.




Technical Stuff

[You may skip this section on first reading. If you have problems with
program operation and have followed all instructions carefully then you
might find the answer here.]

HARDCOPY was written ENTIRELY in assembler. Using assembler is clearly
overkill for this type of program since most of the time is spent waiting
for the printer to print out the pages. But I had a great time writing it.
I started the program because I had a need for it. It then became a vehicle
to help me work out some ideas on human/computer interaction, many of which
never showed up in this program but will in some other program.

The program was written to work best on an IBM PC with an Epson-compatible
printer. The printer type should not matter unless you ask for compressed
or letter-quality type. Only in those two cases, and on resetting the
printer, are any control characters sent to the printer. If you are having
problems with output to the printer, try requesting normal type. If that does
not work, send me a note with your print control characters and I will see if
I can modify the program.

The author has broken a number of rules in this program. For speed and
appearance, HARDCOPY writes directly to the screen. HARDCOPY determines
from DOS using Interrupt 11H whether a color or monochrome monitor is being
used. The program checks first for a color monitor and will use that if it
finds one. Whether writing to a color or monochrome screen the program uses
the 80-column monochrome text mode.

Also for speed HARDCOPY reads the entire file to be printed into RAM. Here
the program breaks a major rule. The program does not use DOS to allocate
memory but uses the fact that all memory above the program is allocated to
the program. HARDCOPY uses this memory for reading and manipulating the
file. Breaking this rule means that the program is not compatible with the
multi-user, multi-tasking schemes that are prevalent. This approach should
not affect any single-user, single-task setup. Later versions will conform
DOS memory allocation rules, but until then, what you get is what you get.

HARDCOPY assumes that the PC on which it is operating has 640k of RAM. It
will read in a file until it reaches that RAM address, including RAM that
was allocated below the program, or reached the end of the file. In other
words HARDCOPY will not work if the user has 256k of RAM and tries to print
a file with 250k of text, but, depending on the amount of RAM-resident
software on the system, HARDCOPY would let that user print a 100k file.



Thank you for trying HARDCOPY.