Thanks for confirming my suspicion that \f in the Perl shipped with mac os x 10.2 might not be working properly (or at all). Is anyone out there getting a form feed to work?
On 2/17/03 13:37, "Bruce Van Allen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I was hoping someone could offer some useful advice here. I've just > begun fiddling with lpr recently, and am still very ignorant, so after > the OP's first query, I immediately tried to print something with a > form feed on my laser printer Speedy (OS X 10.2.4, Perl 5.6.1): > > #!/usr/bin/perl -w > open LPR, "|lpr -P Speedy >/dev/null 2>&1" > or die "Can't open printer: $!"; > print LPR $_ . "\n" for qw/AAA BBB CCC DDD/; > print LPR "\f"; > print LPR "EEE", "\n"; > close LPR > __END__ > > Speedy prints everything on one page: > AAA > BBB > CCC > DDD > <-- what happened to form feed? > EEE > > I also tried the -p and -l (ell, not one) switches, and watched the > process using Print Center. With -p (pretty print header) I saw a > message flash by saying "nstextopdf pretty print not supported", and > then the above printed (on one page). With -l, a message flashed by > saying "Sending print file, 21 bytes", but *nothing* printed. > > If printed to STDOUT, the rectangle junk character printed for the \f > is correctly identified by BBEdit as a form feed. > > So this question is not about whether I (or the OP) can get something > to print -- it's specifically about lpr printing a form feed, known as > \f in Perl. As the above shows, \n prints newlines. I also tested \t, > and get tabs just fine. > > Secondarily, at least for me, is there more to know about darwin's lpr > here? > > Thanks. > > On Monday, February 17, 2003, at 07:59 AM, drieux wrote: >> On Sunday, Feb 16, 2003, at 14:52 US/Pacific, Tom McDonough wrote: >>> On 2/15/03 21:56, "drieux" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>>> On Saturday, Feb 15, 2003, at 14:40 US/Pacific, Tom McDonough wrote: >>>>> I'm trying to force a form feed using perl 5.6 and os x.2 without >>>>> using the >>>>> format command. >>> LPR is the line printer and it is OPEN. My program is printing >>> continuous >>> lines and I want to control the page break. >> I presume that you are using a printer with a tractor feed? >> As opposed to the laser-printer style? yes? and that it is >> locally attached? >> >> Have you pulled out the manual for it, as to what it uses >> for 'control sequences'. >> >> you may want to read >> >> man printcap >> >> Since what you want to ship to the printer, if it is >> defined in the 'ff' argument, is what you will need to >> ship to the printer to make it follow instructions. >> >> I think what the '\f' is talking about is the 8-bit pattern >> 007 or the sixteen bit pattern 017... > > - Bruce > > __bruce__van_allen__santa_cruz__ca__ >
