Hardcopy UIS Release Notes for Version 3.2
The information in this document is subject to change without notice
and should not be construed as a commitment by Digital Equipment
Corporation. Digital Equipment Corporation assumes no responsibility
for any errors that may appear in this document.
The software described in this document is furnished under a license
and may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such
license.
No responsibility is assumed for the use or reliability of software on
equipment that is not supplied by Digital Equipment Corporation or its
affiliated companies.
Copyright © 1987 by Digital Equipment Corporation
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1 OVERVIEW
Hardcopy UIS consists of the RENDER command (which translates and
displays UIS picture files), four translators (UIS to PostScript, UIS
to SIXEL, UIS to HPGL, and UIS to ReGIS) and the HCUIS$ routines.
HCUIS is documented in the "MicroVMS Workstation Guide to Printing
Graphics." These release notes contain descriptions of all new
features and changes since HCUIS V3.0.
The HCUIS kit is part of the MicroVMS Workstation software kit but is
installed separately. See the manual for the installation procedure.
Also, the MicroVMS Workstation software kit includes in the demo kit
an unsupported graphics editor, called VWS/SIGHT, that can create UIS
files.
NOTE
If you don't already have MicroVMS Workstation
software V3.0 or later installed on your VAXstation,
you should obtain a copy of it and install it prior to
installing HCUIS.
To make one of your applications create UIS files, see the description
of the HCUIS$WRITE_DISPLAY routine in the manual.
2 NEW AND CHANGED FEATURES
2.1 New Device Support
Hardcopy UIS V3.2 includes support for several new hardcopy devices.
The new devices and their corresponding values for the RENDER
command's /DEVICE_TYPE qualifier follow:
o VT240 and VT241 (/DEVICE_TYPE=VT240, /DEVICE_TYPE=VT241)
You may specify a device type of VT240 or VT241 when you
translate a picture. If you want to draw filled polygons,
you must have Version 2.1 or later of the VT240/241 firmware.
VT is the only paper size allowed for the VT240 and VT241.
Because of the low vertical resolution of the VT240 and
VT241, line and pattern alignment anomalies tend to occur.
o LA75 (/DEVICE_TYPE=LA75)
The LA75 is supported through monochrome SIXELs. The values
for paper size can be A, A4, LEGAL, or VT. The default is A.
Connect the LA75 to your VAXstation using a serial
communications port. Use SYS$MANAGER:HCUISDEVICES.COM to
establish the proper line characteristics and an optional VMS
print queue.
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o PrintServer 40 (/DEVICE_TYPE=LPS40)
The PrintServer 40 is supported using the PostScript
translator. The values for paper size can be A, A4, B, A3,
LEGAL, or VT. A is the default.
You must have the PrintServer 40 Client Software installed on
the VMS system where you will be printing the translated
output (.REN) files. This system can be your VAXstation or
some other host VAX. When you print a .REN file, make sure
you include /PARAM=(DATA=POST) on the VMS PRINT command.
If you have the PrintServer 40 Client Software installed on
your VAXstation, you can print a .UIS file directly. When
you print a .UIS file, include /PARAM=(DATA=UIS) on the VMS
PRINT command.
o LN03R (/DEVICE_TYPE=LN03R)
This device is supported by the PostScript translator. The
values for paper size can be A, A4, or VT. A is the default.
Connect the LN03R to your VAXstation using a serial
communications port. Use SYS$MANAGER:HCUISDEVICES.COM to
establish the proper line characteristics and an optional VMS
print queue.
2.2 New RENDER Command Qualifiers
o /LOG
The /LOG qualifier causes a message to be displayed for each
successful translation or display of a picture (most useful
during wildcard operations). The default is /NOLOG.
o /SIZE=(width,height) and /UNITS=unit-type
The /SIZE and /UNITS qualifiers allow you to control the
final size of the printed picture that RENDER creates. /SIZE
takes two numeric parameters corresponding to the desired
width and height of the final picture. /UNITS tells RENDER
what system of measurement you used for the values to /SIZE.
UNITS can be any of the following:
- INCHES
- POINTS
- PTS (synonymous with POINTS)
- CENTIMETERS
- CM (synonymous with CENTIMETERS)
If you specify a size that is smaller than the paper for
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which the picture is translated, the reduced size picture
will be centered on the paper.
If you specify a size that is larger than the paper for which
the picture is translated, RENDER will create a number of
output files (.REN_1, .REN_2, and so on) which, when printed
and pasted up together, will form the enlarged picture.
NOTE
The time that it takes to render a picture
will increase in proportion to the number of
pages over which the picture is spread out.
o /FRAME
The /FRAME qualifier tells HCUIS to draw the picture assuming
the picture is part of a larger page. For example, the
Postscript translator does not generate a "showpage" at the
end of the picture.
Normally, HCUIS scales (and possibly rotates) the picture so
that the largest possible area of the target paper can be
filled with the picture. When /FRAME is specified, these
steps are not performed.
If the output device is a sixel device, the size of the
picture is the size of its virtual display (or
DISPLAY_EXTENT).
If the output device is a Postscript device, the default size
of the picture is the size of its virtual display (or
DISPLAY_EXTENT). However, you can change the size of the
picture by doing a "scale" command prior to the commands that
draw the picture.
If the output device is an HPGL device, the size of the
picture is determined by the settings of P1 and P2 on the
plotter. In this case, the HPGL translator only supports
clipping to the boundary of the picture. If a picture tries
to establish a smaller clipping region, the clipping command
is ignored.
If the output device is a ReGIS device, /FRAME is ignored and
the device's default paper size is used.
/NOFRAME is the default.
o /SOURCE_DATA_TYPE=dt-name and /DESTINATION_DATA_TYPE=dt-name
The /SOURCE_DATA_TYPE and /DESTINATION_DATA_TYPE qualifiers
allow you to use the RENDER command to invoke other resident
translators besides the ones that HCUIS supplies. Each
qualifier accepts a string value which denotes, respectively,
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the name of the data type that the input file consists of and
that which the output file should consist of. For example,
if you specify /SOURCE=UIS/DEST=HPGL, you would invoke a
UIS-to-HPGL translator (which happens to be supplied with
HCUIS). By specifying other strings, you can invoke your own
or other translators.
To use these qualifiers, you need to know the standard names
of the relevant data types, and the appropriate translator
must be present on your system. If RENDER cannot invoke the
designated translator, an error message is displayed.
o /CARRIAGE_CONTROL=cc-keyword
This qualifier controls what type of RMS carriage control is
applied to the output file(s) which RENDER creates. The
allowable keywords are:
- CARRIAGE_RETURN
- NONE
The default is CARRIAGE_RETURN.
o Change to /DEVICE_TYPE
The /DEVICE_TYPE qualifier now accepts arbitrary string
values instead of just keyword values. This feature may be
combined with the /SOURCE_DATA_TYPE and
/DESTINATION_DATA_TYPE qualifiers to pass device names, that
are unknown to HCUIS, to non-HCUIS translators.
2.3 New HCUIS$BEGIN_TRANSLATOR Itemlist Attributes
A new attribute code, HCUIS$C_PAGE_FRAGMENT, has been added to this
itemlist. This code is followed by a longword. The values of the
longword can be HCUIS$C_MULTI_PAGE, which is equivalent to specifying
/NOFRAME on the RENDER command line, or HCUIS$C_PAGE_FRAME, which is
equivalent to /FRAME.
Also, the itemlist codes HCUSI$C_PAGE_WIDTH and HCUIS$C_PAGE_HEIGHT
have been added. They both accept a longword value, which is the
desired page size in points (defined as 1/72 of an inch) in their
respective dimensions.
2.4 Improved ReGIS Color Selection
In HCUIS V3.0, the color palette which the ReGIS translator used was
fixed to the following colors: white, red, green, blue, cyan,
magenta, yellow, and black. When the UIS metafile was rendered, each
object was drawn using whichever one of these colors was closest to
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the object's true color. For example, pink objects would be drawn
red, dark green would be black, and so on. In this field test, the
ReGIS translator will attempt to make a better match to the colors
contained in the picture.
UIS supports a color palette size of 16 million colors. Of those, 256
may be used in one picture (that is, one virtual color map) to draw
objects. On the other hand, the ReGIS protocol, as implemented by the
devices HCUIS supports, has a color palette size of only 64 to 216
colors and a color map size of only 4 to 8. Thus in general, the full
color content of a UIS picture can not be expressed in ReGIS.
In order to create a color map, Hardcopy UIS V3.2 now does a two-pass
translation which increases processing time by an estimated 50%. The
steps are performed as follows:
1. HCUIS parses the entire UIS picture and keeps a list of the
color map entries that are actually used. For example,
assume a picture contains a color map of 256 entries but only
draws objects using a few of the possible colors (this will
often occur with graphics editors which present a large
selection of drawing colors).
2. Once the entire picture is parsed, HCUIS creates the ReGIS
color map. There are two cases:
a) if the number of colors actually used is greater than the
ReGIS color map available (4 for the VT241, 8 for the
LCG01), then use a fixed color map as in HCUIS V3.0.
b) if the number of colors is less than or equal to the
color map size, then initialize the map with colors that
are as close as possible to the exact colors (within the
color palette limits) used in the picture.
Finally, HCUIS re-parses the picture and draws the actual
objects. If the color map was fixed as in a), perform the
color matching done as was done in HCUIS V3.0.
If the translation is done in draft mode, the two-pass process will
not be performed. Instead, the fixed-palette approach will be used.
2.5 Fix To ReGIS Writing Modes
The ReGIS translator now uses the correct writing mode for filled
polygons. Earlier versions of the ReGIS translator always forced the
writing mode to REPLACE whenever filled polygons were rendered.
2.6 Enhanced Support For Images In SIXELs
The SIXEL translator now supports continuous image raster scaling (as
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opposed to integral, enlargement-only, scaling as in V3.0). This will
make image objects appear correctly sized in relationship to other
objects in the picture.
In addition, 8-bit-per-pixel images (gray scale and color) are now
supported on monochrome SIXEL printers; colors are converted to gray
levels and the resulting grey scale image is dithered down to bitonal
SIXELs.
2.7 New HCUISMSG.* Language Definition Files In SYS$LIBRARY
In HCUIS V3.0, the symbolic values corresponding to the HCUIS facility
condition codes were not supplied. In this field test, HCUIS supplies
a new set of language include files to define these codes. The
include file name is HCUISMSG. The files reside in SYS$LIBRARY along
with the existing HCUISDEF include files.
2.8 RENDER Error Reporting
When RENDER encounters an error during the translation, better error
messages are displayed now than were displayed in V3.0.
2.9 LCP01 Device Name Changed To LCG01
The Digital Corporate name for this ink-jet device has been changed to
LCG01. Therefore, the RENDER HELP text and DCL syntax has been
revised accordingly.
The /DEVICE_TYPE qualifier still accepts LCP01 for compatibility.
3 KNOWN PROBLEMS
o The UIS model of world coordinates and virtual displays makes
it possible to for a picture to contain objects which are
outside of the bounds of the world coordinate space that the
virtual display is mapped onto. When such objects are drawn,
they are normally clipped off (made invisible). However, for
objects that are extremely far outside the virtual display
coordinate space, this clipping is not always performed
properly and parts of the objects sometimes become visible in
the output picture.
o If you use the new RENDER/SIZE qualifier to make a picture
that is substantially larger than the output paper size,
there may be some object positioning and clipping problems.