RE: external *PRTF

["Bale, Dan" <DBale@xxxxxxxx>]

Ouch.

Simon, all well said and done.  However, as I mentioned in my earlier post,
the vast majority of printer output, whether external printer files or not,
from an RPG program, in my experience, has no requirements for all the fancy
stuff you mention.  Antiquated?  Sure, just like 5250 is antiquated.  And,
sure, just like 98% of all the AS/400 shops out there are stuck in a
primitive, antiquated mode.  But still reliably & efficiently grinding away,
year after year after year.

This discussion has made the rounds before.  Not so much internal vs.
external printer files, but the antiquation issues.  Jeez, how I would love
to take advantage of some of the modern technologies the AS/400 has to
offer.  Where are the leading-edge AS/400 shops?  They must be operating
covertly in the Detroit area.  I'm tired of carrying the banner, trying to
convince higher-ups to try new things.  "Don't have the budget for it", "Too
high a learning curve", "Have to train everybody", etc.

But I digress.  If a client actually gave me a request to produce a fancy
report with gridlines and graphics and multi-fonts and color, I would be
more than happy to throw away the O-specs.  

- Dan Bale

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Simon Coulter [SMTP:shc@flybynight.com.au]
> Sent: Monday, April 10, 2000 9:33 PM
> To:   RPG400-L@midrange.com
> Subject:      Re: external *PRTF
> 
> M
> Hello Dan,
> 
> Aside from the good engineering aspect of externalising EVERYTHING the
> major benefit to 
> external printer files is that they are printer independant.
> 
> RPG's view of the printer world consists only of very stupid
> line-at-a-time printers.  
> You cannot do bolding or underlining (although you can fake it).  You
> cannot control 
> fonts nor other advanced functions supported by laser printers.  You can
> certainly embed 
> printer control codes in your RPG output and directly control the printer
> but then your 
> code needs to know what printer it is talking to and once spooled you
> cannot then direct 
> it to a different type of printer without stuffing up the printed result.
> For example, 
> generate PCL in RPG and then move the spooled file to an output queue
> associated with a 
> PS printer.
> 
> Using DDS to describe your printed output allows you to design the report
> for the 
> fanciest printer you have installed and know that it will still print on
> the most 
> primitive printer you have.  (There are some limitations of course but for
> the most part 
> the OS will handle the printer differences.)  External printer files buy
> you a lot of 
> extra function.
> 
> Of course, if your shop is primitive and you're still using band printers
> and half-shadow 
> listing paper then by all means continue with your antiquated practices.
> 
> Regards,
> Simon Coulter.
> 
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