xref: /original-bsd/share/man/man4/man4.vax/va.4 (revision a1c2194a)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1991 Regents of the University of California.
2.\" All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" %sccs.include.redist.man%
5.\"
6.\"     @(#)va.4	6.3 (Berkeley) 03/27/91
7.\"
8.Dd
9.Dt VA 4 vax
10.Os BSD 4
11.Sh NAME
12.Nm va
13.Nd Benson-Varian interface
14.Sh SYNOPSIS
15.Cd "controller va0 at uba0 csr 0164000 vector vaintr"
16.Cd "disk vz0 at va0 drive 0"
17.Sh DESCRIPTION
18.Bf -symbolic
19(NOTE: the configuration description, while counter-intuitive,
20is actually as shown above.)
21.Ef
22.Pp
23The Benson-Varian printer/plotter in normally used with the line printer
24system.
25This description is designed for those who wish to drive the Benson-Varian
26directly.
27.Pp
28In print mode, the Benson-Varian uses a modified
29.Tn ASCII
30character set.
31Most control characters print various non-
32.Tn ASCII
33graphics such as daggers,
34sigmas, copyright symbols, etc.
35Only
36.Tn LF
37and
38.Tn FF
39are used as format effectors.
40.Tn LF
41acts as a newline,
42advancing to the beginning of the next line, and
43.Tn FF
44advances to the top of
45the next page.
46.Pp
47In plot mode, the Benson-Varian prints one raster line at a time.
48An entire raster line of bits (2112 bits = 264 bytes) is sent, and
49then the Benson-Varian advances to the next raster line.
50.Pp
51.Em Note :
52The Benson-Varian must be sent an even number of bytes.
53If an odd number is sent, the last byte will be lost.
54Nulls can be used in print mode to pad to an even number of bytes.
55.Pp
56To use the Benson-Varian yourself,
57you must realize that you cannot open the device,
58.Pa /dev/va0
59if there is an daemon active.
60You can see if there is an active daemon by doing a
61.Xr lpq 1
62and seeing if there are any files being printed.
63Printing should be turned off using
64.Xr lpc 8 .
65.Pp
66To set the Benson-Varian into plot mode include the file
67.Aq Pa sys/vcmd.h
68and use the following
69.Xr ioctl 2
70call
71.Bd -literal -offset indent
72ioctl(fileno(va), VSETSTATE, plotmd);
73.Ed
74.Pp
75where
76.Ar plotmd
77is defined to be
78.Bd -literal -offset indent
79int plotmd[] = { VPLOT, 0, 0 };
80.Ed
81.Pp
82and
83.Ar va
84is the result of a call to
85.Xr fopen
86on stdio.
87When you finish using the Benson-Varian in plot mode you should advance to
88a new page
89by sending it a
90.Tn FF
91after putting it back into print mode, i.e. by
92.Bd -literal -offset indent
93int prtmd[] = { VPRINT, 0, 0 };
94\&...
95fflush(va);
96ioctl(fileno(va), VSETSTATE, prtmd);
97write(fileno(va), "\ef\e0", 2);
98.Ed
99.Sh FILES
100.Bl -tag -width /dev/va0xx -compact
101.It Pa /dev/va0
102.El
103.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
104The following error numbers are significant at the
105time the device is opened.
106.Bl -tag -width ENXIOxx
107.It Bq Er ENXIO
108The device is already in use.
109.It Bq Er EIO
110The device is offline.
111.El
112.Pp
113The following message may be printed on the console.
114.Pp
115.Bl -diag
116.It va%d: npr timeout.
117The device was not able to get data from
118the
119.Tn UNIBUS
120within the timeout period, most likely because some other
121device was hogging the bus.  (But see
122.Sx BUGS
123below).
124.El
125.Sh SEE ALSO
126.Xr vfont 5 ,
127.Xr lpr 1 ,
128.Xr lpd 8 ,
129.Xr vp 4
130.Sh HISTORY
131The
132.Nm
133driver appeared in
134.Bx 4.0 .
135.Sh BUGS
136The 1's (one's) and l's (lower-case el's) in the Benson-Varian's
137standard character set look very similar; caution is advised.
138.Pp
139The interface hardware is rumored to have problems which can
140play havoc with the
141.Tn UNIBUS .
142We have intermittent minor problems on the
143.Tn UNIBUS
144where our
145.Xr va
146lives, but haven't ever been able to pin them down
147completely.
148