SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSHLP]HCUIS032.RELEASE_NOTES;1



Hardcopy UIS Release Notes for Version 3.2










The information in this document is subject to change  without  notice
and  should  not  be  construed  as  a commitment by Digital Equipment
Corporation.  Digital Equipment Corporation assumes no  responsibility
for any errors that may appear in this document.

The software described in this document is furnished under  a  license
and  may  be  used or copied only in accordance with the terms of such
license.

No responsibility is assumed for the use or reliability of software on
equipment that is not supplied by Digital Equipment Corporation or its
affiliated companies.



Copyright  1987 by Digital Equipment Corporation







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1  OVERVIEW

Hardcopy UIS consists of the  RENDER  command  (which  translates  and
displays  UIS picture files), four translators (UIS to PostScript, UIS
to SIXEL, UIS to HPGL, and UIS to ReGIS) and the HCUIS$ routines.

HCUIS is documented in the "MicroVMS  Workstation  Guide  to  Printing
Graphics."  These  release  notes  contain  descriptions  of  all  new
features and changes since HCUIS V3.0.

The HCUIS kit is part of the MicroVMS Workstation software kit but  is
installed  separately.  See the manual for the installation procedure.
Also, the MicroVMS Workstation software kit includes in the  demo  kit
an  unsupported graphics editor, called VWS/SIGHT, that can create UIS
files.

                                 NOTE

        If  you  don't  already  have   MicroVMS   Workstation
        software  V3.0  or later installed on your VAXstation,
        you should obtain a copy of it and install it prior to
        installing HCUIS.

To make one of your applications create UIS files, see the description
of the HCUIS$WRITE_DISPLAY routine in the manual.



2  NEW AND CHANGED FEATURES

2.1  New Device Support

Hardcopy UIS V3.2 includes support for several new  hardcopy  devices.
The  new  devices  and  their  corresponding  values  for  the  RENDER
command's /DEVICE_TYPE qualifier follow:

      o  VT240 and VT241 (/DEVICE_TYPE=VT240, /DEVICE_TYPE=VT241)

         You may specify a device type of  VT240  or  VT241  when  you
         translate  a  picture.   If you want to draw filled polygons,
         you must have Version 2.1 or later of the VT240/241 firmware.

         VT is the only paper size allowed for the  VT240  and  VT241.
         Because  of  the  low  vertical  resolution  of the VT240 and
         VT241, line and pattern alignment anomalies tend to occur.

      o  LA75 (/DEVICE_TYPE=LA75)

         The LA75 is supported through monochrome SIXELs.  The  values
         for paper size can be A, A4, LEGAL, or VT.  The default is A.

         Connect  the  LA75  to  your  VAXstation   using   a   serial
         communications  port.   Use  SYS$MANAGER:HCUISDEVICES.COM  to
         establish the proper line characteristics and an optional VMS
         print queue.








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      o  PrintServer 40 (/DEVICE_TYPE=LPS40)

         The  PrintServer  40  is  supported  using   the   PostScript
         translator.   The  values for paper size can be A, A4, B, A3,
         LEGAL, or VT.  A is the default.

         You must have the PrintServer 40 Client Software installed on
         the  VMS  system  where  you  will be printing the translated
         output (.REN) files.  This system can be your  VAXstation  or
         some  other  host VAX.  When you print a .REN file, make sure
         you include /PARAM=(DATA=POST) on the VMS PRINT command.

         If you have the PrintServer 40 Client Software  installed  on
         your  VAXstation,  you  can print a .UIS file directly.  When
         you print a .UIS file, include /PARAM=(DATA=UIS) on  the  VMS
         PRINT command.

      o  LN03R (/DEVICE_TYPE=LN03R)

         This device is supported by the PostScript  translator.   The
         values for paper size can be A, A4, or VT.  A is the default.

         Connect  the  LN03R  to  your  VAXstation  using   a   serial
         communications  port.   Use  SYS$MANAGER:HCUISDEVICES.COM  to
         establish the proper line characteristics and an optional VMS
         print queue.




2.2  New RENDER Command Qualifiers


      o  /LOG

         The /LOG qualifier causes a message to be displayed for  each
         successful  translation  or display of a picture (most useful
         during wildcard operations).  The default is /NOLOG.

      o  /SIZE=(width,height) and /UNITS=unit-type

         The /SIZE and /UNITS qualifiers  allow  you  to  control  the
         final size of the printed picture that RENDER creates.  /SIZE
         takes two numeric parameters  corresponding  to  the  desired
         width  and  height of the final picture.  /UNITS tells RENDER
         what system of measurement you used for the values to  /SIZE.
         UNITS can be any of the following:

          -  INCHES
          -  POINTS
          -  PTS (synonymous with POINTS)
          -  CENTIMETERS
          -  CM (synonymous with CENTIMETERS)

         If you specify a size that is  smaller  than  the  paper  for








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         which  the  picture  is  translated, the reduced size picture
         will be centered on the paper.

         If you specify a size that is larger than the paper for which
         the  picture  is  translated,  RENDER will create a number of
         output files (.REN_1, .REN_2, and so on) which, when  printed
         and pasted up together, will form the enlarged picture.

                                     NOTE

                 The time that it takes to  render  a  picture
                 will  increase in proportion to the number of
                 pages over which the picture is spread out.


      o  /FRAME

         The /FRAME qualifier tells HCUIS to draw the picture assuming
         the  picture  is  part  of  a  larger page.  For example, the
         Postscript translator does not generate a "showpage"  at  the
         end of the picture.

         Normally, HCUIS scales (and possibly rotates) the picture  so
         that  the  largest  possible  area of the target paper can be
         filled with the picture.  When  /FRAME  is  specified,  these
         steps are not performed.

         If the output device is a  sixel  device,  the  size  of  the
         picture   is   the   size   of   its   virtual   display  (or
         DISPLAY_EXTENT).

         If the output device is a Postscript device, the default size
         of  the  picture  is  the  size  of  its  virtual display (or
         DISPLAY_EXTENT).  However, you can change  the  size  of  the
         picture by doing a "scale" command prior to the commands that
         draw the picture.

         If the output device is an  HPGL  device,  the  size  of  the
         picture  is  determined  by  the settings of P1 and P2 on the
         plotter.  In this case, the  HPGL  translator  only  supports
         clipping  to the boundary of the picture.  If a picture tries
         to establish a smaller clipping region, the clipping  command
         is ignored.

         If the output device is a ReGIS device, /FRAME is ignored and
         the device's default paper size is used.

         /NOFRAME is the default.

      o  /SOURCE_DATA_TYPE=dt-name and /DESTINATION_DATA_TYPE=dt-name

         The /SOURCE_DATA_TYPE and  /DESTINATION_DATA_TYPE  qualifiers
         allow  you to use the RENDER command to invoke other resident
         translators besides  the  ones  that  HCUIS  supplies.   Each
         qualifier accepts a string value which denotes, respectively,








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         the name of the data type that the input file consists of and
         that  which  the output file should consist of.  For example,
         if you specify  /SOURCE=UIS/DEST=HPGL,  you  would  invoke  a
         UIS-to-HPGL  translator  (which  happens  to be supplied with
         HCUIS).  By specifying other strings, you can invoke your own
         or other translators.

         To use these qualifiers, you need to know the standard  names
         of  the  relevant  data types, and the appropriate translator
         must be present on your system.  If RENDER cannot invoke  the
         designated translator, an error message is displayed.

      o  /CARRIAGE_CONTROL=cc-keyword

         This qualifier controls what type of RMS carriage control  is
         applied  to  the  output  file(s)  which RENDER creates.  The
         allowable keywords are:

          -  CARRIAGE_RETURN
          -  NONE

         The default is CARRIAGE_RETURN.

      o  Change to /DEVICE_TYPE

         The  /DEVICE_TYPE  qualifier  now  accepts  arbitrary  string
         values  instead  of just keyword values.  This feature may be
         combined      with      the       /SOURCE_DATA_TYPE       and
         /DESTINATION_DATA_TYPE  qualifiers to pass device names, that
         are unknown to HCUIS, to non-HCUIS translators.




2.3  New HCUIS$BEGIN_TRANSLATOR Itemlist Attributes

A new attribute code, HCUIS$C_PAGE_FRAGMENT, has been  added  to  this
itemlist.   This  code  is  followed by a longword.  The values of the
longword can be HCUIS$C_MULTI_PAGE, which is equivalent to  specifying
/NOFRAME  on  the RENDER command line, or HCUIS$C_PAGE_FRAME, which is
equivalent to /FRAME.

Also, the itemlist codes  HCUSI$C_PAGE_WIDTH  and  HCUIS$C_PAGE_HEIGHT
have  been  added.   They  both  accept a longword value, which is the
desired page size in points (defined as 1/72  of  an  inch)  in  their
respective dimensions.



2.4  Improved ReGIS Color Selection

In HCUIS V3.0, the color palette which the ReGIS translator  used  was
fixed  to  the  following  colors:   white,  red,  green,  blue, cyan,
magenta, yellow, and black.  When the UIS metafile was rendered,  each
object  was  drawn  using whichever one of these colors was closest to








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the object's true color.  For example, pink  objects  would  be  drawn
red,  dark  green  would be black, and so on.  In this field test, the
ReGIS translator will attempt to make a better  match  to  the  colors
contained in the picture.

UIS supports a color palette size of 16 million colors.  Of those, 256
may  be  used  in one picture (that is, one virtual color map) to draw
objects.  On the other hand, the ReGIS protocol, as implemented by the
devices  HCUIS  supports,  has  a color palette size of only 64 to 216
colors and a color map size of only 4 to 8.  Thus in general, the full
color content of a UIS picture can not be expressed in ReGIS.

In order to create a color map, Hardcopy UIS V3.2 now does a  two-pass
translation  which increases processing time by an estimated 50%.  The
steps are performed as follows:

     1.  HCUIS parses the entire UIS picture and keeps a list  of  the
         color  map  entries  that  are  actually  used.  For example,
         assume a picture contains a color map of 256 entries but only
         draws  objects  using a few of the possible colors (this will
         often occur with  graphics  editors  which  present  a  large
         selection of drawing colors).

     2.  Once the entire picture is parsed, HCUIS  creates  the  ReGIS
         color map.  There are two cases:

         a)  if the number of colors actually used is greater than the
             ReGIS  color  map  available  (4 for the VT241, 8 for the
             LCG01), then use a fixed color map as in HCUIS V3.0.

         b)  if the number of colors is less  than  or  equal  to  the
             color  map size, then initialize the map with colors that
             are as close as possible to the exact colors (within  the
             color palette limits) used in the picture.

         Finally, HCUIS re-parses the picture  and  draws  the  actual
         objects.   If  the  color map was fixed as in a), perform the
         color matching done as was done in HCUIS V3.0.

If the translation is done in draft mode, the  two-pass  process  will
not be performed.  Instead, the fixed-palette approach will be used.



2.5  Fix To ReGIS Writing Modes

The ReGIS translator now uses the  correct  writing  mode  for  filled
polygons.   Earlier versions of the ReGIS translator always forced the
writing mode to REPLACE whenever filled polygons were rendered.



2.6  Enhanced Support For Images In SIXELs

The SIXEL translator now supports continuous image raster scaling  (as








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opposed to integral, enlargement-only, scaling as in V3.0).  This will
make image objects appear correctly sized  in  relationship  to  other
objects in the picture.

In addition, 8-bit-per-pixel images (gray scale  and  color)  are  now
supported  on  monochrome SIXEL printers; colors are converted to gray
levels and the resulting grey scale image is dithered down to  bitonal
SIXELs.



2.7  New HCUISMSG.* Language Definition Files In SYS$LIBRARY

In HCUIS V3.0, the symbolic values corresponding to the HCUIS facility
condition codes were not supplied.  In this field test, HCUIS supplies
a new set of language  include  files  to  define  these  codes.   The
include  file name is HCUISMSG.  The files reside in SYS$LIBRARY along
with the existing HCUISDEF include files.



2.8  RENDER Error Reporting

When RENDER encounters an error during the translation,  better  error
messages are displayed now than were displayed in V3.0.



2.9  LCP01 Device Name Changed To LCG01

The Digital Corporate name for this ink-jet device has been changed to
LCG01.   Therefore,  the  RENDER  HELP  text  and  DCL syntax has been
revised accordingly.

The /DEVICE_TYPE qualifier still accepts LCP01 for compatibility.




3  KNOWN PROBLEMS


      o  The UIS model of world coordinates and virtual displays makes
         it  possible  to  for  a picture to contain objects which are
         outside of the bounds of the world coordinate space that  the
         virtual display is mapped onto.  When such objects are drawn,
         they are normally clipped off (made invisible).  However, for
         objects  that  are  extremely far outside the virtual display
         coordinate space,  this  clipping  is  not  always  performed
         properly and parts of the objects sometimes become visible in
         the output picture.

      o  If you use the new RENDER/SIZE qualifier to  make  a  picture
         that  is  substantially  larger  than  the output paper size,
         there may be some object positioning and clipping problems.










