Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!ucbvax!VENUS.YCC.YALE.EDU!LEICHTER
From: LEICHTER@VENUS.YCC.YALE.EDU ("Jerry Leichter ", LEICHTER-JERRY@CS.YALE.EDU)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: re:  Problem with  define/form (extra sheets of paper)
Message-ID: <8802150341.AA20700@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 9 Feb 88 15:26:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 33


	I am using a laserjet II, and have defined setups for the various
	fonts that we wish to use. The modules in the device control library
	contain just the escape sequence to initialize the printer.

	All works fine, but I get a blank sheet of paper printed for each of
	the setup and reset sequences.  Is there anyway to get around this?

No; the best you can do is save the sheets and re-use them.  What is hap-
pening is simple, if annoying.  The print symbiont wants the printer to be
in a "known state" - in particular, at the top of a page - at certain points,
such as just before starting to print the first page of actual data.  It sends
a form feed, putting the printer there, BEFORE sending the reset or setup
module.  The problem it then has is:  Did the reset or setup module move the
paper?  To answer this question, the symbiont scans the data in the reset or
setup module for "printable" characters, which might "move the carriage".  It
recognizes ANSI-format escape sequences, and assumes they do NOT produce
printable characters.  Unfortunately, the sequences used by LaserJets are
NOT in ANSI format, and in fact if you try to parse them as ANSI-format
sequences, you'll find that you pretty much always end up with a character
that, to the LaserJet, is part of a control sequence, but in ANSI terms would
be just a printing character.  So, the symbiont decides the reset or setup
module has moved the paper, and it issues another form feed to get things
back where they belong.

At various times, I've seen claims that there was a hack (bug?) in the
symbiont such that, if the setup or reset module actually contained a form
feed, the form feed would NOT be sent to the printer, but the symbiont would
decide that IT didn't need to send one either.  This would avoid the problem,
but I've never managed to get it to work.  If you experiment with this and
succeed, I'd be interested - it's annoying to have to save those extra sheets.

							-- Jerry