In article <v0311071baffed53d9b10@[199.245.241.61]>, "F. Alfredo Rego"
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>Mike Gabriel <[log in to unmask]> wrote some interesting comments
>about spooling that brought to mind an ancient topic that comes up every
>now and then (and that perhaps has been solved).
>
>Is there any way (via a spooler utility, hardware, or whatever) to
>"motivate" a LINE printer to always begin a listing on an even (or, for
>that matter, on an odd) page?  The idea is that EVERY listing would then
>have its first page "on top".
>
Set the paper length on the printer twice as long as it really is.
So one logical page = 2 physical pages.

Then tell all your software that it can do a perf skip in the 'middle'
of each page, but not a page throw.

Hack MPE, and all the relevant FOS software to do the same.

Enjoy....


(I jest a little, but not entirely. I once had a rather good business
analyst in my employ who understood both the printing of stationery and
the needs of users.

He realised that while our main Order Form, with one line per available
product, would never fit onto one sheet of printer paper, even with
extra depth, it would fit onto two.

And that the people who print forms do them from two identical plates
wrapped round a drum. So why must they be identical? Why not have
fanfold in which each odd page was Page 1 of the order form, and each
even page was page 2?

So that's what he did. So now we could prefill with suggested order
quantities, produce acknowledgements that looked just like the
handwritten orders, print summary sales to date, and a heap of other
good things.

To produce these, we did exactly the double depth, middle perf skip
procedure outlined above. We even figured out how to separate them in
their pairs, when our burster couldn't be set to do this.

He must have been doing something right, too. First (and only?) time
I've seen a roomful of sales reps burst into spontaneous applause at a
computer upgrade....
--
Roy Brown               Phone : (01684) 291710     Fax : (01684) 291712
Affirm Ltd              Email : [log in to unmask]
The Great Barn, Mill St 'Have nothing on your systems that you do not
TEWKESBURY GL20 5SB (UK) know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.'