HOSTPrint

General Description

The HOSTPrint utility is used to print CHARON output to Windows printers. It receives data from COM2 port of emulated HP Alpha model via a TCP/IP socket and prints the data received on the default Windows printer (if no printer is specified at the utility command line) on the host computer.

Note that the second console line "TTA0" (COM2) is available only for 1 CPU models such as:

HP AlphaServer 400
HP AlphaServer 800
HP AlphaServer 1000
HP AlphaServer 1000A
HP AlphaServer DS10
HP AlphaServer DS10L
HP AlphaServer DS15

Back to Table of Contents

Usage

HOSTPrint calling is specified in the CHARON configuration file. The call implement one or more of the following parameters:

Parameter Description

-host=<hostname> Name of the host - source of the printing data.

-port=<connection port number> Port on the host to get the information to print from.

-delay=<delay for automatically buffer flush in seconds> Flushing delay, 0 - wait infinite, 5..10800 - timeout for flush

-printer=[PrinterDeviceName]

Host name for the printer used.

Example 1:

-printer=[\\.\Microsoft Office Document Image Writer]

Example 2:

-printer=[\\print_server\MSCLPS]

-font=<default font face> Default font name.

-fontsize=<default font size> Default font size.

The two last parameters are only used for compatibility with older versions of the utility (HOSTprint allows changing font settings from a popup menu).

It is strongly recommended to use fixed-size fonts (by default the "Courier" font is used) to avoid any problems relevant to proper calculation of the printing line length.

Example of CHARON-AXP configuration file for the HOSTPrint usage:

load virtual_serial_line TTA0 port=10000 application="hostprint.exe -port=10000 -printer=[\\print_server\MSCPS2] -font=\Courier New\ -fontsize=10"

set COM2 line=TTA0

After initialization, HOSTprint creates an icon in the Windows tray. The icon can have two colors:

Color	Description
GREEN	IDLE (or Ready) state
YELLOW	BUSY (processing) mode

*: To access the HOSTprint application popup menu, point the mouse cursor at its icon in the system tray menu and click the right button, preview the last page content then change the utility mode via the flush buffer delay or change the default font setting.

Back to Table of Contents