Print preview issues; (2) ri_wport

[Cliff_Wiernik]

Just starting to test v9.09. When ri_printer is D and the display screen is shown, on my Dell Latitude (native screen pixel resolution at 1450x1200), everything looks great. Even when I set screen size to 1024x768, the preview screen is still the same size. (Computer W2000)____Now, I go to a desktop computers with W2000 loaded. Screen resolution 1024x768 but the appearance is the same for higher resolutions, the screen display(preview) has some of the characters overlapping. It is as if the screen font size is a little to large. The report is 132 characters wide printed in compressed mode. This is a rr6.0a report loaded from a rp1 file.____What do I need to do to correct this screen appearance problem.____2nd item -------__I tried to use the ri_wport separately without ri_wptr using LPT1: or LPT2:. This did not appear to have any affect and nothing printed out. If I just use ri_wptr with the printer name, it works and sends the report to whereever that printer is assigned. How do I properly use ri_wport.____3rd item -------__I am testing printing a rr6 report to a LJ6P printer. With other windows programs, it does not put the printer into manual feed mode. However, with the rr9 rrwrun program, it is putting it into manual feed mode. Which specific setting is causing this to happen.____Cliff Wiernik.__

[kfleming]

1st item ------- __The difference in display could be due to the selected printer driver.__And if the report is coming from an RP1 file, then the file RRWFIF.INI will control the fonts that are used.____2nd item ------- __RI_WPORT works along with the selected printer rather than as a standalone option. Unless you enter a printer in W_PTR, R&R will try to find the saved printer on the RI_WPORT value rather than going to whatever printer might be attached to that report.____>3rd item ------- __Are you running the report directly from the RP1 file? You might want to convert to an RRW file and then run the RRW version. Reports in an RP1 file have no saved printer information which may be why you are seeing strange behavior.____Kathleen__R&R Support

[Cliff_Wiernik]

>1st item ------- __>The difference in display could be due to the selected __>printer driver. __>And if the report is coming from an RP1 file, then the file __>RRWFIF.INI will control the fonts that are used. ____We need to address this in alot more detail. I do have a current tech support arrangment with liveware if needed. I can go to 3 different W2000 computers. All are using the exact same RRW directory for runtime files only. Designed is only loaded on one computer. This is a transitional clipper system, so we still use RR 6.0a and rp1 files which must be dual purpose at this point. In the runtime control file, for displayed reports, ri_printer is ^D^ and ri_wptr and ri_wport are both blank. The rrwfif.ini files is the same in each case (i.e. the same file is being used. However, on one computer (Dell Latitude), it prints correctly. On another computer, also with ri_wptr and ri_wport blank. Default printer driver on one is a HP 5L and on the other it is the HP 5si.____On at least 2 other computers, also W2000, one with the default driver of HP 6P, the print preview is showing some characters partially overlapping. I can email a screen print of this if necessary.____For screen dumps, do I need to provide a printer, it would be the default printer anyway. Since no FIF file is attached, I assume it is using the first 4 lines that say 10=, 12= compressed= ...____How can we resolve this.____>__>2nd item ------- __>RI_WPORT works along with the selected printer rather than __>as a standalone option. Unless you enter a printer in W_PTR, __>R&R will try to find the saved printer on the RI_WPORT value __>rather than going to whatever printer might be attached to __>that report. ____The version 9 documentation does not give the impression that they must work together. Anyways, I found that I will likely use the ri_wptr alone and it works fine.____>__>>3rd item ------- __>Are you running the report directly from the RP1 file? You __>might want to convert to an RRW file and then run the RRW __>version. Reports in an RP1 file have no saved printer __>information which may be why you are seeing strange __>behavior. __>____I cannot convert to RRW files at this point as I need to run it in dual mode (DOS and windows) at this point until testing and all reports converted. I can look at printer setups as the one W2000 machine with a LJ 6P has the paper location setup as automatic. I can create another windows printer specifically setup to specify the bin 2 location which is the normal tray in HP terms (manual is bin 1).____You say that rp1 file has no saved printer information which would be fine if it was consistent. Printing to a jetdirect connected LJ1000, LJ4V, LJ5si all do not put it into manual mode. The LJ 6P direct connected on both a W98 and W2000 file puts it into manual mode. Strange behave that is not consistent is a program problem in my opinion. How can I determine what is happening. Do you have some procedures, etc. to follow. I.e. capture print stream to file, etc.____4>>>>>>>>>>>>>> An additional question.__My reports generally do not have a FIF attached. Thus, it should be using the first 4 lines of the rrwfif.ini file. Each of the printers has built in line printer fonts. However, it appears that the rrwfif.ini file is using a built-in courier font instead. How can I make it use the line printer font. I tried lineprinter and line printer, etc. as the first items in the compressed string, but it does not work and printer spacing is way off.____Thanks, Cliff Wiernik________>Kathleen __>R&R Support __

[kfleming]

The only things that you can do to change how RP1 reports will print from runtime is __1. Edit the RRWFIF.INI file and change the fonts that are listed for compressed and changing the pitch setting (try 15 and 20 and see the difference in output)____2. Change the selected printer.____Sooner or later though, you will need to convert the reports to RRW format. At this point in our product development, we are most likely not going to make code changes to address problems in printing from RP1 files. So you may need to maintain two versions of your reports.__If you do find similar problems when printing from reports saved in the current version, the priority to fix then moves up considerably.____Kathleen__R&R Support

[Cliff_Wiernik]

>The only things that you can do to change how RP1 reports __>will print from runtime is __>1. Edit the RRWFIF.INI file and change the fonts that are __>listed for compressed and changing the pitch setting (try 15 __>and 20 and see the difference in output) ____Please provide specific documentation regarding all the options in the rrwfif.ini file and what they mean. I.E. when a font is specified, how is the font specified as it correlates to the printer font. Their is multiple fonts on each line, separated by a comma. If I want to use a different font on the printer, how is it described (i.e. name, etc). I can tell you that the font listing says Line Printer but courier is used and if courier is remove, some proportional font is used. This does not appear to be documented in the help files.____I must have been doing something wrong yesterday. I will try on the problem computers but on my computer (that worked properly before), if I change the setting from 17 to 18-20, it does change the preview(display) appearance. However, I need to test on a computer that overlapped as even changing mine to 16 does not cause overlap but does cause cropping, which would be expected.______>__>2. Change the selected printer. __>__>Sooner or later though, you will need to convert the reports __>to RRW format. At this point in our product development, we __>are most likely not going to make code changes to address __>problems in printing from RP1 files. So you may need to __>maintain two versions of your reports. __>If you do find similar problems when printing from reports __>saved in the current version, the priority to fix then moves __>up considerably. __>__>Kathleen __>R&R Support ______>>>>>> item 4, you did not address this. You have line printer and lineprinter in the rrwfif.ini file but it does not appear to select the "Line Printer" built in fonts on the HP printers. Please detail more on how this works so I can resolve.____Also, regarding some of the issues related to conversion. At the xbase conference, many developers were turned off by the tone of the presentation when various developers ask questions. If the transition is made too difficult from the existing software to newer software, then another more responsive vendor becomes an alternative also. I have used R&R since the beginning and have upgraded to v10. I don^t want to switch but arrogance and resulting frustration can make a difficult decision easy. The problems with field selection being cumbersome and exclusion of some features from the runtime are examples of what I mean.____I will try this an let you know.

[Cliff_Wiernik]

The manual feed problem appears to be cause by the LaserJet 6P driver. Either the driver is defective or how it is used by R&R. I will test with a RRW spec at a later date. Changing the driver to a LJ5si driver caused the problem. I think it is a driver, not R&R problem as the client has said that some other programs appear to also have that problem.____I am still awaiting information on how to properly select the line printer font.____Thanks.____Cliff Wiernik.

[kfleming]

[updated:LAST EDITED ON Nov-17-02 AT 11:57 AM (EST)]Here is more detail on RRWFIF.INI.____For DOS reports with no FIF file and a saved pitch of compressed, the Windows version of R&R will read the None section of RRWFIF.INI__Here are the default settings from that file.____Compressed=Courier-LD,LinePrinter,Courier New,Courier__CompPitch=17____When R&R opens the report it uses the Windows default printer (since there is no saved printer info in the file) and then in turn looks to see if each named font in the comma separated list working left to right is available for that printer.__When it finds a matching font it uses the first match. If it find no match, it uses the default font that is set in the as the Facename in the defaults section of RRW.INI. If there is no Facename, then the windows default font is used.____You can edit RRWFIF.INI and change the Compressed setting to select fonts that are available for your printer.____The CompPitch is used to control the horizontal ruler spacing in the report and it also determine the point size for the font.__20 pitch translates to 6 point, 17 is an 7 or 8 (depending on whether the font is proportional.____To see this in action you can edit the RRWFIF.INI and the open the report, close the report, change the RRWFIF.INI and open it again and see the changes take place.____I am using an HP6P driver on Win98 and for me LinePrinter from the RRWFIF.INI does work for my report. If it is not working for you, open the report and check the list of available fonts and make sure that it is listed in the Font drop down as LinePrinter. Name has to be an exact match. If it is not working, let me know what driver/OS and I will try to replicate here.____Kathleen__R&R Support