readme
1$Id: readme,v 1.3 1992/10/07 22:06:08 craigs Exp $
2
3README for nenscript version 1.13
4Craig Southeren 2-October-1992
5---------------------------------
6
7This directory contains the sources for nenscript, a clone of the
8proprietary enscript program from Adobe Systems. For those who have
9never used enscript, it is a good ASCII to Postscript converter.
10
11This the second version of nenscript I have released. The first
12version (1.12 as of 20 August 1992) was received well, but it really
13needed a few changes. Thanks to everyone who sent in suggestions
14and code fragments.
15
16nenscript was written by me over a period of several months whilst
17I was working at Computer Sciences of Australia as a contractor.
18As a regular net-watcher, I saw that several people had (over the
19years) asked for a public domain version of enscript. Seeing as I
20had got tons of useful stuff off the net, I though this looked like
21a good opportunity to pay back the net community. So I convinced
22my manager that this would be a Good Thing.
23
24The main features of nenscript are:
25
26 . produces Postscript output which fully conforms to
27 the Document Structuring Conventions
28 . support for normal and "gaudy" output
29 . support for single or double column output
30 . allows insertion of titles and headers in any font.
31 . multiple copies of a document
32
33Features additional to nenscript are:
34 . automatic wrapping of long lines
35 . availability under MSDOS
36 . executable is self contained - no additional files required
37
38The main feature that is NOT supported by nenscript is the ability
39to use fonts other than Courier for text output. This would require
40access to full font tables which I don't have have.
41
42New for version 1.13
43--------------------------
44The most important change is the support for additional paper sizes through
45the -T option. At the moment, only US and A4 paper sizes are supported, but
46others can be added easily by inserting them into the table in paper.c.
47Support for changeable tab stops has also been added on the -t option.
48A simple script called pstext allows nenscript to be used as replacement
49for the Adobe pstext program with print spooling systems such as CAP.
50
51Notes on 1.12
52-------------
53nenscript has been extensively used for over six months on a Sun-3/Sun-4
54network with over 50 users. No major problems are currently outstanding.
55This version is identical with the addition of support for MSDOS.
56
57Installation
58------------
59
60To install, first select whether you want the US version or not. If the
61define US_VERSION is defined, then the default paper size is US, and
62the date is in US format.
63
64For Unix:
65 The makefile provided will install nenscript in /usr/local/bin, with
66 the man page in /usr/local/man/man1. This makfile works
67 unchanged on a SIlicon Graphics Personal Iris 35D running Irix 4.0.2
68 and on a Sun SparcStartion II with SunOS 4.1.2
69
70For MSDOS:
71 I've lost my ability to compile under MSDOS, so I can't claim to
72 have tested this. But the previous version DID compile, and this
73 one should with little or no modifications.
74
75
76Features I would like to add:
77-----------------------------
78
79Please send me your suggestions. I can't guarantee that I will do anything
80about them but if you don't tell me, I definitely won't!!!
81
821. Support for the ISO-Latin character set. At the moment, characters are
83 just sent down to the printer.
84
852. Binary file detection. enscript attempts to detect binary files and will
86 will reject them (unless forced to print)
87
883. Display of control characters. Control characters other than ^L (page
89 break), ^I (tab) and newline are not trapped.
90
915. Support for the IBM PC character set, and perhaps some of the other
92 display code pages.
93
94
95If you want to modify nenscript...
96----------------------------------
97
98The paper size definitions are now in a table in paper.c, so
99adding new paper sizes should be easy. Most of the machine dependent
100stuff is now in machdep.h, so porting to new machines should be
101easier.
102
103
readme.os2