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Re: [LUG] sendfax and jpg graphics
At 18:55 15/11/2003 +0000, you wrote:
On Saturday 15 November 2003 17:23, Simon Robert wrote:
> Well these guys are still having problems with the communication
> innovation which is the cleft stick. Non informational or not they still
> are really really insistent that their lovely logos are included.
>>Of course. Branding is dear to the hearts of those with
brands.... ...SHort paper is cheaper than A4, so get >>them to buy short
paper, and add the missing length on top as a cleaned up image held as a
file...
This is actually paperless, (at the originators end) and uses a modem
rather than a fax machine, hence the problem. The application is
wriiten/supported in Raining Data d3 (for some unfathomable reason the
Pick corporation name changed to Raining Data, d3 is similar to IBM's
uniVerse/unidata and the sadly defunct Prime Information (primos, now that
was a great OS) (I won't digress into the greatness of databases where
every record is potentially a 4 dimensional matrix)) which is an
application environment/programming language/database management
system/command line reporting tool which sits in what its perpertrators
like to call a BLOB, binary large object. The blob sits on top of
linux/unix/w*nd*ws or whateve and can be linked into the "native" OS.
linux commands can be executed from within d3 basic progs or from the
command line by sticking a shriek infront,
EXECUTE "!faxspool ":TELNO:" /var/spool/fax/temp.txt"
within a prog drops out of the prog and executes the command at the d3
command line and the shriek (!) tells it to drop out of d3 and execute the
command in the linux shell.
However d3 is a "green screen" environment, unless its been expensively and
for our clients who do a lot of data entry uselessly GUIized. So from the
sales order screen the command "fax" takes the user to a screen where they
enter telephone number, a bit of message and other header type info then
takes the order info combines them and outputs it to a document file. Same
as if it was to be printed. The program invokes the linux faxspool command
which takes the text file converts it to the g3 bitmap format which fax
machines use and then sticks it on the fax queue. At this point faxrunqd
which runs in the background picks it up dials the number and stuffs it
into the modem.
This is plain text. A lot of our cheapskate clients indulge in industrial
archeology using things like line printers, but by sticking the appropriate
control codes into the document sophisticated graphical effects like BOLD
and ITALIC can be achieved, but not when its sent via a modem. There are no
tools within d3 for producing documents as anything other than text.
When using a fax machine preprinted stationery is usually used and the
clients want the same effect on the paperless direct from application
documents.
So how to take a text file, such as could be edited with vi or textpad, and
insert a jpg/gif/tif into it at the correct place and of the correct size?
There must be some solution along the lines of piping the various different
bits and formats of the document through ascii2ps, ps2g3, g3cat and the
like. But what is it?
Sorry about the length of this post, I'll shutup about this problem now.
simon-robert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://mysite.freeserve.com/simon_robert
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