Jeff Kell ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
: Larry Byler wrote:

[...]

: > A TTFILE environment file is intended for use in a serial printer
: > environment.  Only its name is copied into the spool file, as the data
: > portion of a single FDEVICECONTROL intrinsic call.  When the spooler
: > sees this particular FDEVICECONTROL record, it passes the file name to
: > lower-level serial-printer-specific system code which opens and processes
: > the file to the printer itself.

: And network printer spooler driver ignores TTYPE files, no?  Or just
: the "true" TTYPE files?  I know it doesn't like anything with a filecode
: over 1023 (1024?).

The effect is to "ignore" the TTYPE files.  What really happens is that
the network printing spooler ignores the particular FDEVICECONTROL call
in which the TTYPE file name is embedded.  So it will "ignore" any file
name in that call, whether the underlying file is a true TTYPE file or
any other kind.

Jeff's question show a bit of confusion about what happens when.  The
treatment of ENV files when the spool file is created depends *entirely*
on what kind of ENV file the file system is dealing with.  It has nothing
to do with the target device, about which no assumptions are made at spool
file creation time because it could change before printing.  So, PENV
files are processed by one routine, TTYPE files by another, and so on.
At the bottom of the sieve are network printing ENV files; it is these
files that must have a filecode of 0 <= n <= 1023 to be accepted.

No matter what ENV processing is done, the result is one or more
FDEVICECONTROL calls in the spool file (FWRITEs for network printing ENVs),
which the output spooler deals with when it prints the file.  If the
spooler understands the particular FDEVICECONTROL call, it does useful
things with it.  If it does not (as with TTYPE files in a network printing
environment), it ignores the call.

Hope that clears the air a little.

-Larry "MPE/iX Spoolers 'R' Us" Byler-