the perl conversion script(unix-dos)

[slanning at buphy.bu.edu (Scott Lanning)]

On Fri, 20 Apr 2001, bill h wrote:
>I understand the perl, and what its doing, but why does the printer
>need a dos file to print correctly? Is this because I'm on a netware
>lan, or is it the HP itself?

I guess the printer requires both a linefeed ("\n", which is the
unix text "newline sequence") and a carriage return ("\r").
Linefeed alone
              just makes the
                            text look like
                                          this.
I have tested that you can also reverse the sequence,
using "\n\r" instead of "\r\n", and it works either way.
I've even tested "\r\r\n\r\r" as a newline sequence, and it
works as expected. :)
    I hesitate to call a printer a "dumb" machine (ours at work
runs a web server, for example :), but the model I have in mind
is that each character passed to it is a command. Most of the
characters' commands simply cause the printer to print that
character (send it a "q", and it will print a "q"), but some of
them are special ("control" characters) and only cause the
printer's "cursor" to move (or invoke its PostScript interpreter).
I'm guessing that terminals like VT100 were based on printers
in this way, and I know that early "terminals" were actually
printers.
    So, the upshot is that you have to put a filter between your
machine and the printer. `printtool` has a configuration option
that lets you "Fix stair stepping text", so you might try that.

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