ZX PRINTER driver for ZEDIT

Any discussions related to the creation of new hardware or software for the ZX80 or ZX81
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stefano
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Re: ZX PRINTER driver for ZEDIT

Post by stefano »

thank you for the report! the result looks very satisfactory !
as said the arrows were improved already, I'll release a new version soon
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stefano
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Re: ZX PRINTER driver for ZEDIT

Post by stefano »

zedprint2.p
ZEDPRINT - V2
(4.13 KiB) Downloaded 271 times
lp.c
ZEDPRINT source - V2
(2.59 KiB) Downloaded 263 times
This is the improved version. The 'space' character is not printable (lprintc5 just skips it and updates the position for the next character), so I'm using a workaround. Moreover the font now features the 'cursor symbols'.
Last but not least now the printing process can be interrupted by pressing SPACE (break).


screenshot.jpg
screenshot.jpg (24.45 KiB) Viewed 5687 times
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siggi
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Re: ZX PRINTER driver for ZEDIT

Post by siggi »

I have compiled it for address 13000. Now it can remain in memory, while Zedit is running. If Zedit is stopped, print can be startet by RAND USR 13000. After that Zedit can be restarted by RUN (so no program must be loaded again :mrgreen: ).

zcc +zx81 -lndos -zorg=13000 -O3 -o zpr13000.bin lp.c

Thanks
Siggi

BTW: I have enhanced the Zeddy SENDMAIL program. Now a Zedit text in memory (at 32K) can be sent directly via e-mail:
http://forum.tlienhard.com/phpBB3/viewt ... 168#p36997
My ZX81 web-server: online since 2007, running since dec. 2020 using ZeddyNet hardware
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siggi
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Re: ZX PRINTER driver for ZEDIT

Post by siggi »

stefano wrote: Mon Aug 13, 2018 9:06 am The 'space' character is not printable ..
Why not? Connect a colour printer having white ink :mrgreen:
Siggi
My ZX81 web-server: online since 2007, running since dec. 2020 using ZeddyNet hardware
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siggi
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Re: ZX PRINTER driver for ZEDIT

Post by siggi »

Hi Stefano
I compiled your version 2, but I get different printouts! While your program prints capital letters and graphics, my compiled program prints inverted charaters.
So something is different!
I compiled using:
zcc +zx81 -lndos -zorg=13000 -o zpr13000.bin lp.c
zcc +zx81 -lndos -create-app -o lp.bin lp.c
zcc +zx81 -lndos -create-app -compiler=sdcc -o lp-sdcc.bin lp.c

Do you use a different compiler version? Mine is dated Aug. 14.
Or is a compiler option missing?

Here a (bad) picture of the first page of the Zedit manual: upper part is printed by your program, lower part by mine (Zeditor graphics is missing):
IMG_1744_640x480.JPG
Siggi
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stefano
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Re: ZX PRINTER driver for ZEDIT

Post by stefano »

it is the library. the special font and extra features are hidden in libsrc/zx81/lptintc5 and must be activated manually, the missing definitions are -DASCIIFONT and -DXFONT.. the zx81_clib library must be rebuilt with those extra constants.
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stefano
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Re: ZX PRINTER driver for ZEDIT

Post by stefano »

I'm not sure on what's is the best way to alter the library, I run 'make zx81_clib.lib', then I edit zx_lprintc5 with almost no changes to refresh the file datetime and copy/paste the last z80asm call
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siggi
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Re: ZX PRINTER driver for ZEDIT

Post by siggi »

Hi Stefano
wouldn't it be better to add some conversion functions (like asctozx81() ) zo z88dk instead of doing the conversion "manually" inside a printer driver (e. g. zx81tounicode() )?

Siggi

PS: Perhaps the Unicode font (having also non-ZX81 chars like 'Ö', 'Ä', '€') could be inside the library section, which is linked, when the appropiate function (e.g lprintc_unicode() is called?
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stefano
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Re: ZX PRINTER driver for ZEDIT

Post by stefano »

ZEDIT is a wonderful idea because permits to use the original zx81 keyboard concept to produce an output compatible to the modern computer standards, including graphics symbols and few extra character from the latin set, some of them being useful only for the German language, where spanish, french and italians could have preferred the stressed vowels :) By the way it is far from being able to fully support unicode, it rather adds the few needed exceptions (encoded with extended sequences of three bytes) t7o the normal ascii set. Obviously the zx81 could not keep in memory all the needed fonts for the whole unicode standard, so the symbols are remapped by zedit and lp.c in non-standard way to unused ascii codes. To provide this extended font as a standard option means very little because it is hacked specifically to support zedit... the clean way to do it would be to permit user provided fonts, udg definition, etc.
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siggi
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Re: ZX PRINTER driver for ZEDIT

Post by siggi »

Indeed, the Unicode char set is unlimited (thus even a ZX81 with several ramp packs could not store it ;) ) and still growing. Maybe sometimes it will also contain Romulanian and Klingon characters :mrgreen:
Thus a special "printer driver", supporting only the Unicode chars, that the application is using, is the better solution for a limited system like the ZX81 (+ ram pack ).
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