On Wed, 6 Aug 1997 [log in to unmask] wrote:

> Rich Corn writes:
<snip>
> It was done at least 24 years ago on an IBM 1401 line printer, among
> others, at the University of Tennessee.  If you remember carriage tapes
> and "skip to channel n" directives, this should make sense.  Their
> output spooler (OS/360 HASP in those days, later JES2) was "modified"
> to do a "skip to channel 9" before printing a banner page.  The actual
> carriage tape consisted of two pages of duplicate punches *except*
> there was only one channel 9 punch.  By labeling the carriage tape
> appropriately and having the operator mount the paper on an "in fold"
> you always had a face-up banner page.  Similarly, any programs that you
> wanted to have output begin face-up could skip to channel 9 prior to
> beginning the report.
>
> Unfortunately, as "electronic" carriage tapes (a.k.a. "VFCs" in HP
> printer terminology) arrived on the scene, there was the presumption
> that a VFC specification began and ended on a channel-1 skip.  One of
> the early HP line printers (a Dataproducts OEM, I think) still had to
> have a carriage tape, but it read it once during power-up (or when the
> operator changed it).  It would not accept the weird tape we used for
> printing UT output.
>
> Jeff Kell <[log in to unmask]>
>

I think Jeff is thinking about the HP 2617 printer.  We made custom tapes
for them and providing the operator set the proper top-of-form,
everything worked well.  Later printers used downloadable VFC instead of
the paper (or mylar) tapes.  When the system was brought up, you
downloaded the VFC file to the printer.  Even more recently it became
possible to use TermType files (which have their own VFC information in a
second "VFC" file, not to be confused with the previous VFC files) to set
up special carriage control.  I haven't need to worry about "page facing
up" vs. "page facing down" for a few years, so the memory is foggy, but
you might want to investigate using the "TT" (termtype) files for serial
printers as a way to modify the way carriage control directives are handled.

John
--------------------------------------------------------------
John Korb                            email: [log in to unmask]
Innovative Software Solutions, Inc.

The thoughts, comments, and opinions expressed herein are mine
and do not reflect those of my employer(s), or anyone else.