StrongEd Printing Bug

When I try to print to a PDF (using Martin Würthner’s PS3) and in graphic mode, if I tick “print headers and footers” they are indeed printed, but nothing else is — and only one page is printed. If I don’t have this ticked, the source code is printed correctly.

This happens with BASIC files, if that makes any difference.

same here. StrongED 4.70A15.
Also get an error message:

unable to print given string(print cancelled)

The PS3 printer driver and StrongED are an untested combination simply because I don’t have PS3. When I wrote the graphics printing code I mainly tested with PrintPDF (PS2) and SPrinter. Have just tested again with these and it’s still working fine (se470a16).

When “print headers and footers” is ticked does it print both header and footer? I.e. it’s only the actual text that is missing?

Have you tried the PS2 driver to see what happens?

Which version of StrongED are you using?

Which version of StrongED are you using?

John seems to be using the latest version on the web site se470a15, quirk of PS3 or a fix in a16? – my money is on PS3

When “print headers and footers” is ticked does it print both header and footer? I.e. it’s only the actual text that is missing?

With "print headers and footers” ticked nothing is printed and error message as above is issued. Also last time I tested it also crashed the computer.

Have you tried the PS2 driver to see what happens?

Yes seems to work, except header is overlayed on first line of text.

Which version of StrongED are you using?

StrongED 4.70a15 (23-Apr-2017)

Which version of StrongED are you using?

FWIW StrongED 4.69f13 (30-Apr-2023) shows the same issue with PS3, PS2 being OK.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

I’ve had a look at the code and so far nothing stands out as obviously wrong. The only oddity I found was that StrongED was giving the rectangles to print in reverse order.

First the footer then the actual text and finally the header. As I understand it, that shouldn’t matter but I’ve changed the order anyway, just in case.

A few more questions to everyone if I may.

Does the problem occur with a real printer, PrintPDF or both?
Does the page orientation (landscape, portrait) make any difference?

Does the problem occur with a real printer, PrintPDF or both?

Tested on PrintPDF only.

Does the page orientation (landscape, portrait) make any difference?

No, the error is the same on both.

StrongED 4.69f13 (30-Apr-2023)

Tested here. StrongED 4.69F12(29-Sep-2022) on rPi running RO5.29(22-Dec-22).

On the mono laser using PS2, printing headers and footers works.
On the colour laser using PS3, I get “Unable to print given string (print cancelled)”

A closer look shows that the print stops after the file name header is printed. Whatever comes next is the show stopper.

The default BaseMode header has two |i’s at that point.

#--- PrintHead & PrintFoot
#    These two defines default heading and footing used when printing.

PrintHead	<StrongED$Tmp_FileName>|i|i<Sys$Date> <Sys$Time>|m
PrintFoot	|m|i---- <StrongED$Tmp_Page> ----

Get rid of those and use a hyphen as separator and the print does complete.

#--- PrintHead & PrintFoot
#    These two defines default heading and footing used when printing.

PrintHead	<StrongED$Tmp_FileName> - <Sys$Date> <Sys$Time>|m
PrintFoot	|m|i---- <StrongED$Tmp_Page> ----

Oddly the footer does not appear to be troubled by its |i.

|i is move cursor on one space?

|i is move cursor on one space?

I, ninth letter. It’ll be a tab.

It’ll be a tab.

Thanks.

Using the vanilla PDF, not PS3, printer |i|i right aligns the date and time after a left aligned file name. My avoidance bodge left aligns the whole header.

The footer is centred for both drivers.

The default BaseMode header has two |i’s at that point. [..] Get rid of those and use a hyphen as separator and the print does complete.

Thanks David, that’s extremely helpful.

Looked at the code for printing the header/footer and found that the string passed to it was 1 character too long, i.e. the tab was included. After changing that the print-out still looks good using PS2 so hopefully this fixes printing with PS3.

Oddly the footer does not appear to be troubled by its |i.

That’s because it’s at the start of the string. Only Tabs that come after a section of the header/footer string could cause problems.