The Print File

This document introduces the PrintFile and explains all related commands (PRINT, TEXT, VIEW and LAST).

Introduction

EDA is an interactive program designed for screen oriented work. In order to keep track of the analyses results may be kept for later printing or other uses. This facility is called the PrintFile (PF), i.e. a file where EDA stores output produced by the commands. This output may then be printed, kept in a file, reviewed etc.

Initially the PrintFile is not active, i.e. by default results appear only on the screen. A PrintFile is activated with the PRINT ALL, PRINT REQUEST or the PRINT QUERY commands, setting one of the PrintFile modes:

The PrintFile contains all output from the analysis commands. Normally the results are identical to what you see on the screen. With some commands however more information appears in the PrintFile, e.g. many commands show the variable descriptors in addition to the variable labels; a few commands have special options, e.g. PLOT BIG, producing only output to the PrintFile (no screen output at all). A number of commands (for instance the plot inspect (PI)) module do not produce output to the PrintFile, unless you select a specific option when entering the module. [in order to avoid too much unwanted output in situations where you are interactively and iteratively fine tuning your analysis.]

The basic command to know about is the PRINT command, used to control the PrintFile. PRINT is used to activate the PrintFile and to manage it. Whenever a PrintFile is open and you leave EDA using the QUIT command EDA will ask what to do with the PrintFile, i.e. printing, deleting, keeping or reviewing. The same possibilities are offered from within EDA (i.e. without leaving EDA) as options of the PRINT command.

Important: It is essential to understand that EDA does not keep any results for printing before a PrintFile is explicitly activated by the user. The examples below illustrate the use of the PRINT command and the various print file modes.

The example uses the PRINT ALL mode.

    >   <more commands>
    >BOXPLOT 1
    >STEMLEAF
    >PRINT ALL
    >LIST 1-10 SORTED CODED
    >FACTOR 1-10
    >C1 LIST
    >C2 1 2 PLOT
    >QUIT

Nothing is kept for printing UNTIL the PRINT ALL command is issued. The output from the LIST command through the C1 command is placed into the PrintFile. When QUITting EDA will display the following prompt:

>>PrintFile P[rint]*,D[elete],K[eep] H[tml] or R[eview]:?

i.e. asking, what the user wants to do with the PrintFile. Print is the default (as indicated by the star), i.e. if you just hit <return> the file will be sent to the printer. The other options are requested by typing the first letter. D deletes the PrintFile, K keeps the results in a file for later use, H produces a HTML file and R lets you review it (see the REVIEW processor below).

Note some EDA versions offer additional options:

>>Printfile P[rint]*,E[dit] D[elete] K[eep] H[tml] R[eview]?:

The Edit options will call the system text editor with the contents of the PrintFile.

On most systems K[eep] EDA will ask you to enter a file name for the print file, on other systems EDA will just give you the - automatically generated - PrintFile name.

The next example illustrates the PRINT REQUEST command:

    >   <more commands>
    >PRINT REQUEST
    >BOXPLOT 1
    >STEMLEAF
    >P                   ! PRINT and P are identical
    >LIST 1-10 SORTED CODED
    >FACTOR 1-10
    >C1 LIST
    >P
    >C2 1 2 PLOT
    >QUIT

PRINT REQUEST activates the PrintFile in request mode. In this example only the results from the STEMLEAF and C1 LIST commands are placed in the print file, as they are followed by the P or PRINT command. All other results are not kept.

The final example shows the PRINT QUERY mode. After each command you will be asked whether the current image is to be copied to the PrintFile or not.


>stemleaf 1
   26 cases
Stemleaf:ICult(1) Culture initiative
Legend:  6|2 stands for      7.2;  26|1 for     26.1
   6|26
   8|3
  10|122015
  12|8868
  14|13678
  16|9
  18|9
  20|914
  22|
  24|29
  26|1
PRINT [Y*/N]?:

Whenever you answer by typing Y (default indicated by the * symbol) or hitting the return key the stem and leaf plot will be copied to the PrintFile. You may change the default.

Additional information
Commands producing documentary information (DESCRIBE, DOC and the like) are often just used to read the information and might produce lengthy output often repeated. By default this output is placed into the PrintFile. You may however ask EDA to display it only, using the SET PDOC command.

ALL EDA command lines may contain a global switch. Two of them /D and /P deal with the PrintFile. /D means "do not display" and /P "do not print", i.e. when you type e.g. BOXPLOT 1-10 PARALLEL /P and a PrintFile is active, the output will only be displayed, i.e. /P suppresses the output to the print file for that command. BOXPLOT 1-10 PARALLEL /D on the other hand would only place the output into the PrintFile and nothing would appear on the screen.

The Print command



PRINT

Control print modes

PRINT ALL ["fname"] PRINT REQUEST ["fname"] PRINT QUERY ["fname"] [NO_IS_DEFAULT] PRINT OFF

Print in request mode PRINT P

Control PrintFile

PRINT | STATUS | SEND [NEW] | PRINT | HTML [<hopt>] | DELETE or DROP [NEW] | RESTART | KEEP or STOP or TERMINATE ["name"]* [NEW]

PRINT REVIEW [HISTORY] [PRETTY | FORMATTERC] [DELETE] [NOHEAD] [NODELINPUTFILE] [LINEDISP=N] [NEW]
<hopt> ["nam"] [NODELETE_PF] [CUTOFF=min_lines] [POPUP_TOC] [{NO}ADDLINKS][IGNORE_STYLE][BROWSE]

This command controls the EDA PrintFile (PF). In order to keep track of output produced to the interactive screen, the user activates the PrintFile (PF). It may be activated in three distinct modes: ALL mode, QUERY mode and REQUEST mode.

  1. ALL mode: All results displayed are also placed into the PrintFile, until the PF is stopped, printed or the user sets a different mode.
  2. REQUEST mode:: Only images followed by a PRINT command are placed into the PrintFile, i.e. after the command producing the results you wish to keep you will have to type PRINT or P; otherwise the image is not saved to the PrintFile.
  3. QUERY mode: After each image you will be asked to confirm whether you want to copy the current image to the PrintFile or not. By default (i.e. if you answer the question by hitting the return key), the image will be kept (Yes). You may change the default answer by specifying the NO_IS_DEFAULT option; then you will have to type Y or Yes (or O, Ok, P) or save the current image for printing.

(*) Note: Internally QUERY and REQUEST are identical. For this reason you may also use the P/PRINT command with the QUERY mode, i.e. you may, e.g. when you have answered N after the image, still ask to store the image in the PrintFile using P or PRINT command.

At program termination EDA will ask, what to do about with PrintFile (Print it, Keep it etc). The same options are available at any point using various options of the PRINT command described here.

Normally the file name is time/date based. However the user may specify a name using "fname". If you need to know the PrintFile name, it is is displayed with the PRINT STATUS or the STATUS commands, as well as the print modes.

Several printers may be available to you. (See HELP SYSTEM or other local documentation for details). There is always a default printer and on many systems PRINT SEND alone will send the output to the nearest printer. Other printers may be used, but you will have to change the printer using the SET PRINTER command (see STAT PRINTER LIST for a list of available printers). See SET PRINTER for details on how to change printers and your local documentation for additional details.

SEND
SEND closes the PrintFile and sends it to the current printer. Note that SEND prints the PrintFile; then the file is deleted. Therefore if you intend to keep the output after printing you should not use SEND, but KEEP the print file and print it outside EDA. Important: After SENDing the PrintFile is no longer active. You will have to reopen a new PF or use the NEW option. The NEW option prints the file and reopens a new PrintFile.
PRINT
PRINT is the same as SEND; the only difference between the two commands is that after PRINT PRINT EDA activates a new PrintFile, whereas PRINT SEND puts EDA into print OFF mode
OFF
OFF turns the current PrintFile off. Results may be kept again by giving another PRINT REQUEST or PRINT ALL command, reactivating the PrintFile. In this case the PrintFile is only disactivated but remains connected and it is normally processed upon program termination. You may use other PRINT options on an inactive PrintFile.
DELETE or DROP
DELETE and DROP terminate the PrintFile and DELETE it. No PrintFile is then active. You may add the NEW option to activate a new PrintFile after deleting the previous one.
RESTART
RESTART discards all contents of the current PF and start the file over again (same name).

Note this may also be used to discard the PrintFile header, when this command is issued just after a PrintFile has been opened.

KEEP TERMINATE or STOP
KEEP, TERMINATE or STOP stop printing and disconnect the PrintFile.

Depending upon the EDA implementation and on the working mode (interactive) this options prompts for a name you want to use with the PrintFile. The default is a automatically built file name, e.g. E3456.EPR (numbers base on date and time). If you just hit the return key this name will be kept; otherwise the name you type in will be used instead. You may also use a "name" on the command line, then you will not be prompted for a new file name (unless there is a problem with the name you have specified).

If the prompt does not show, EDA displays the file name it uses. (This in fact means that your EDA version cannot rename files automatically).

REVIEW
REVIEW invokes the review processor, i.e. the current PrintFile is closed. After leaving REVIEW no PrintFile will be active, unless you add the NEW option. See below for a detailed explanation of the print REVIEW processor.
HTML
Produce a HTML file from the PrintFile. [The actually produced HTML file can be customized quite heavily by the adminstrator].

By default EDA will ask for a name for the HTML file and then produce the output file. (no need to specify the .htm extension)

Various options may be used to control the process:

STATUS

STATUS displays information on the PrintFile: its current status and name.

ResVars (*)
All printing options, which print or terminate the PrintFile will leave the PrintFile name in Z$.
Technical note on PRINT REQUEST/QUERY modes (*)
PRINT REQUEST mode (as well as PRINT QUERY mode) work as follows: Whenever a command is typed and a PrintFile is active, the output is, in addition to the screen, written to a temporary location. The P/PRINT command (as well as the LAST command explained below and TED PRINT) retrieve the image from the temporary location and write it to the actual PrintFile (or perform the operation requested by LAST or TED PRINT).

On most implementations the temporary location will be a scratch file, i.e. whenever you do not have enough disk space an error might occur (reporting an error on the PRINT scratch file) referring to that file.

As, technically speaking, REQUEST and QUERY are the same, it is possible to use the PRINT/P command.

Print review

Note: As there might be local options, and operating specific features please check also the on-line information (?PRINT and HELP PRINT).

REVIEW calls the EDA PrintFile review processor, i.e. a module allowing for PrintFile reviewing. This module has its own commands.

Normally the EDA PrintFile contains the same (or extended) output as shown on the interactive terminal. At the end of each print image (i.e. output produced by a single EDA command) you will find the command line used to produce the image, preceded by the >>> sign. As the insertion of the >>> sign is suppressed by the SET ECHO OFF command, you should not use SET ECHO OFF, if you wish to REVIEW the PrintFile; otherwise the whole PrintFile will be considered as a single image. With the exception of the TED PRINT facility, limited to a single (last) image, no other editing facility is provided. Here the review processor may help.

The review processor goes through the PrintFile, reading each image, displaying the first lines and asking the user whether she/he wishes to keep or to delete from the final output file. (In fact REVIEW reads the normal PrintFile and produces a "nicer" output file, which is different from the first one).

There are basically two modes, keep mode and delete mode, i.e. default in the first mode is to keep (prompt is keep?) an image, in the second to delete it (prompt del?). Default is signaled by a carriage return (blank command).

The remaining options of the PRINT REVIEW command are used to set initial modes, which may also be set internally with the O(ptions) command, where you will find the complete explanations.

NOHEADER suppresses the title section (EDA logo) from the PrintFile.

REVIEW

REVIEW is a special processor with its own commands. The REVIEW processor recognizes the following (single letter) commands:

K
keep the current image (default in keep mode)
D
delete the current image (default in delete mode)
P
print a whole page (first) from the current image instead of displaying only the first lines.
Q
leave PREVIEW, prior to the end of the input PrintFile. (A NODEL option inhibits the destruction of the input PrintFile).
W
writes the current image to a file. The name of the file is specified as an option or queried from the user.
W PRINT
prints the current image immediately on the printer (quick print).
H
Help within REVIEW
?
same as Help
O
without options displays the current modes and other information (see table below) with an option sets the modes as specified.
C
Appends a comment to the end of the current image. The user is asked to enter any number of lines.
G
Go command: No longer queries for commands, but processes the rest of the input file with the options set previously.
I
Insert formatter commands: allows to define text formatter commands inserted before and after the image (see below, not allowed while in pretty mode).
E
(E) Call a system editor to edit the current image. When returning to REVIEW the image will be written and then proceeds to the next image. This option is not available in all EDA versions.
R
Restart: With no option discards the current output file. With the ALL option it does the same and returns to the beginning of the input file and discards the history file if active.

The commands are hopefully self-explanatory, with the exception of the options command. You may specify the following options:

        Options

 Cutoff=lines    sets the cutoff value (images to be
                 discarded)
 [NO]HISTORY     turns history generation on or off
 [NO]PRETTY      controls pretty mode
 KEEP            sets keep mode (default mode)
 DELETE          sets delete mode
 DISPLAY=lines   sets the number of first lines to be
                 displayed.
 NOFORMATC       do no longer add formatter commands.
 NODELFILE       do no delete input file at the end of
                 REVIEW

KEEP and DELETE set the current mode. Default mode is keep mode. DELETE mode may also be set when invoking review.

DISPLAY=lines (defaults to 5) controls the number of first lines to be displayed from each image, when reading it. To see more from the image (temporarily) you may use the P command, displaying the first (terminal) page from the current image.

[NO]PRETTY (default NOPRETTY; pretty may also be set when calling REVIEW) controls the pretty mode. While in pretty mode each image produces a new printer page and provides also page numbers. This mode should be used with circumspection, as it is not very ecological. The Nopretty mode separates single print images with a special line, containing also the command used to produce the image. Pretty mode has a header line on top of each page, including the command having produced the image, a page number and date and time.

[NO]HISTORY (default nohistory, may also be set when calling review) History mode produces a file containing all commands used to produce the current PrintFile; the file produced might be used later on as a command file. Note that when turning on and off several times the history mode, several files are produced (its name is obtained from the user).

CUTOFF=nlines sets the cutoff value to nlines (default 1). Cutoff means that images containing less or equal nlines lines will be automatically discarded from the output file and they will not appear on the screen either. This is mainly used to eliminate sequences of single commands which produce single line output like the GENERATE command, not producing output you normally wish to keep). Note that cutoff never inhibits the generation of the history file, i.e. the history file will always contain all commands processed in history mode.

It is possible to add lines in front of each image and at the end of each image. This are most likely commands for a text formatter to which the resulting output file will be submitted after processing.

The appropriate lines (up to 5 before, up to 5 after) are either entered by the user using the I command, which turns those mode on or come from the user's profile file. In this case you have to specify the FORMATTER option when calling PRINT REVIEW.

When using formatter commands you can insert a special tag ###, which will be replaced by the number of lines the current image has. This is useful for formatter commands used to check the number of lines required on the current page. E.g. the runoff command .test page n checks whether there are n lines left on the current page, if not it ejects the current page. Therefore a .test page ### will do that test for the number of lines in the current image. Note that you may have only one ### tag (before or after images).

Other PrintFile related commands



LAST
   LAST
   LAST WRite
   LAST QUICKPRINT
   LAST VIEW

Last requires, that the PrintFile be active in REQUEST or QUERY mode; this command is then used to manipulate the image produced by the last command. In fact the REQUEST and QUERY modes save the current image to a temporary location which is overwritten by each command. The LAST command lets you manipulate this temporary image.

LAST without options redisplays the last image on the screen. Note that for some commands (e.g. PLOT BIG, C1 LIST) where the PrintFile contains more information than the output on the screen, LAST will show the image placed into the PF; thus the displayed imaged does not look exactly the same as the previous image on the screen.

LAST WRITE writes the last image to a file. There are two possibilities. Eiter a file name is present, then the image is written to that file (permanent file). If no file name is present the image is written to a temporary file called the Viewfile. This file is used by the LAST VIEW command; it may also be visualized with the VIEW LAST command.

LAST QUICKPRINT send the last image directly to the printer.

LAST VIEW is a special command, which may be used to compare two output images; the first being the last image and the second an image previously stored.

VIEW is a special form of the command allowing for simultaneous (parallel display of two print images. The first image is the "last image" i.e. the output produced by the last command. The second image is a previously saved print image.

The second image is either the VIEWFILE, i.e. a temporary file written with LAST WRITE or any external file. In this case you will have to indicate its name as "fnam". In most cases this external file will have been created with a LAST WRITE "name" command.

Default is to use the left half of the screen for the first image and the right half for the second image. As the screen may not be wide enough to show all of the information a part of the image may not be shown. You may control this in some extent by using the POS=col option, where col indicates the column number where you want to start the second image. This may e.g. be used to show only a small part of the first image, say the first 20 columns and used the remaining width of the screen for the second image.

You may furthermore control the section of the images you wish to view by setting column limits on each of the images. This is done with the

COLUMNS=(w1scol,w1ecol,w2scol,w2ecol)

where w1scol,w1ecol indicate the starting and ending column of the first image and w2scol,w2ecol the starting and ending column of the second image. These limits act on the part of the image you wish to see, whereas the POS=col option only acts on the position of the second image on the screen. Note that you need not specify w2scol,w2ecol if you do not wish to act open the second image, but if you do specify these limits you will have to specify the limits for the first image, even if you do not wish to modify the default limits (all of the image).

Note also that these limits do not affect the screen format, i.e. if the amount of information of the first image does not fit into the left half of the screen the remaining part of each line will not be shown; if the first image limits are smaller than the half-screen allocated to it the remaining part will appear as blank.

Default is to show both images on the screen. Nothing is printed, even if a PrintFile is active. In order to put the double-view to the PrintFile you will have to add the PRINT option. If you do not wish to see the image at the same time you may add the ONLY option to PRINT. In this case (PRINT ONLY) the printer width will be used instead of the screen width to determine the amount of information you may see.

Important: the PRINT option writes directly to the PrintFile, i.e. the result may not be seen with a simple LAST command. This is so to allow for several Views (experimenting with cols= and pos=) of the same images (otherwise the double-viewed image would appear).

Note that the LAST command never alters the last image, i.e. you may issue several LAST commands; however you should not forget that any other command will create a new "last command".

TED PRINT


If the REQUEST or the QUERY mode is activated, the TED (text editor) may be used to edit the output before printing it, i.e. you enter TED and will find there the results from the last command. See TED for more details.

TEXT
  TEXT  [text]
  TEXT  "text-string"

Purpose: insert any text into the PrintFile. TEXT with an empty option field inserts all lines you are typing into the PrintFile until a line starts with the string STOP or you enter the // end of input signal. If the option field is not empty, only the text in the option field is written to the print file and execution continues.

When a "text-string" is present on the command line, then it is inserted into the PrintFile.

Please note that this is a very simple command, meant for an occasional comment. The PRINT REVIEW processor, the EDA text editor, as well as the output procedures (expressions) much more powerful utilities.


    VIEW "fname" [<opt>]
    VIEW LAST

    <opt>   [PRINT] [NOPAGE | RECOGNIZE_TAGS]

VIEW displays the contents of a text file on the screen. Most often you will specify the name of a file, whose contents you wish to examine. Files will be paged automatically (no matter how the SET PAGE switch has been set), unless you use the NOPAGE option (note that NOPAGE only inhibits the automatic paging of the VIEW command; if SET PAGE is ON the output from the VIEW command will be paged).

RECOGNIZE_TAGS (*): recognizes tags in the the input file (see the administrators guide, section on help file writing for more information on these tags).

PRINT will write the file you are viewing to the PrintFile if a PrintFile is open. By default VIEW displays only on the screen.

Note that the VIEW command looks for the file in the current directory; if none can be found it checks the INF directory (see the SET PATH command).

The VIEW LAST command displays the contents of the Viewfile, i.e. a file written by the LAST WRITE command and containing an output image. This option is only useful in connection with the LAST VIEW command (see there). Note that if no Viewfile exists an error occurs.