Is there a version of txt2pdf that can convert files longer that 132 characters? The one I have only supports 80/132 characters. Trying to send a PDF report via e-mail that is around 200 characters.

Shael Richmond
International Paper

On 11/9/22 11:02 AM, Shael Richmond wrote:
> Is there a version of txt2pdf that can convert files longer that 132
> characters? The one I have only supports 80/132 characters. Trying
> to send a PDF report via e-mail that is around 200 characters.
If what you have came from here;

http://www.eprg.org/pdfcorner/text2pdf/text2pdf.c

you could try changing some things like:

int cols = 80; /* max chars per output line */

to a different value and recompiling.

Shael,

try HTMLDOC and the --fontsize parameter ?

Volker.

On 2022-11-09 17:02:47 +0000, Shael Richmond said:

> Is there a version of txt2pdf that can convert files longer that 132
> characters? The one I have only supports 80/132 characters. Trying
> to send a PDF report via e-mail that is around 200 characters.

If you're not on a fossil version of OpenVMS, consider using MIME and
an attachment.

See 7.15 here: https://docs.vmssoftware.com/docs/vsi-openvms-user-s-manual.pdf

In general...

MIME>NEW mimemessage.txt
edit the text of your message
MIME>ADD whatever.txt {/ENCODE=BASE64}
MIME>CLOSE

Here's an old txt2pdf, whether this works twenty years on?
https://www.digiater.nl/openvms/decus/vmslt02b/vu/txt2pdf-c.txt

--
Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC

Den 2022-11-09 kl. 18:02, skrev Shael Richmond:
> Is there a version of txt2pdf that can convert files longer that 132 characters? The one I have only supports 80/132 characters. Trying to send a PDF report via e-mail that is around 200 characters.
>
>
> Shael Richmond
> International Paper

There is nothing about the VMS version or the HW platform, but...

I use the built-in PDF tool "ReportLab" to produce PDF files
from VMS data in Python scripts.

I also guess that you are talking about line lengths.
The PDF report is not 200 bytes total size, is it?

Craig A. Berry wrote:
>
> On 11/9/22 11:02 AM, Shael Richmond wrote:
>> Is there a version of txt2pdf that can convert files longer that 132
>> characters? The one I have only supports 80/132 characters. Trying
>> to send a PDF report via e-mail that is around 200 characters.
> If what you have came from here;
>
> http://www.eprg.org/pdfcorner/text2pdf/text2pdf.c
>
> you could try changing some things like:
>
> int cols = 80; /* max chars per output line */
>
> to a different value and recompiling.

This changes the line length of the resulting PDF-file. I think the
question is about the input TEXT-file. I do not think that is a problem
(I tested it with a line of more than 300 characters) with the version
1.2.1 which Bill Pedersen addapted for OpenVMS. You can download the
source code for this version via:
http://nchrem.tnw.tudelft.nl/openvms/software2.html#TEXT2PDF

Regards
Jouk

On 11/10/22 6:53 AM, Joukj wrote:
> Craig A. Berry wrote:
>>
>> On 11/9/22 11:02 AM, Shael Richmond wrote:
>>> Is there a version of txt2pdf that can convert files longer that 132
>>> characters?  The one I have only supports 80/132 characters.   Trying
>>> to send a PDF report via e-mail that is around 200 characters.
>> If what you have came from here;
>>
>> http://www.eprg.org/pdfcorner/text2pdf/text2pdf.c
>>
>> you could try changing some things like:
>>
>> int cols = 80;  /* max chars per output line */
>>
>> to a different value and recompiling.
>
> This changes the line length of the resulting PDF-file. I think the
> question is about the input TEXT-file. I do not think that is a problem
> (I tested it with a line of more than 300 characters) with the version
> 1.2.1 which Bill Pedersen addapted for OpenVMS. You can download the
> source code for this version via:
> http://nchrem.tnw.tudelft.nl/openvms/software2.html#TEXT2PDF

You're right. It does say output line length and I wasn't paying
attention. In which case this is probably not what the OP is using, so
he should try it.

I didn't know about Bill's version. I dredged up my own variant of this
one, attached here, that addresses some other problems with the original
version:

- The number of pages and "locations" is limited only by the amount of
memory you have instead of blowing up when you hit the limit.

- Added command-line redirection.

- Added command-line arguments to specify top and left margins.

I think I did use this for a while but at some point went back to the
other program Hoff posted up-thread:

https://www.digiater.nl/openvms/decus/vmslt02b/vu/txt2pdf-c.txt

which was in heavy use in production until a year or two ago.

Yes I am using the txt2pdf.c and not text2pdf. I broke down and changed the code once I found out what the units in the code referred to(points=1/72 inch). So I added another option to handle lines 225 bytes long and that worked for the report I was dealing with. Originally it only did 80 characters portrait, 80 characters landscape, and 132 characters landscape.

And Stephen I am sending the file using MIME, but was trying to get the file in PDF format to make it easier to read from the PC!

Thanks all,

Shael Richmond
International Paper

On 2022-11-10 15:30:19 +0000, Shael Richmond said:

> Yes I am using the txt2pdf.c and not text2pdf. I broke down and
> changed the code once I found out what the units in the code referred
> to(points=1/72 inch). So I added another option to handle lines 225
> bytes long and that worked for the report I was dealing with.
> Originally it only did 80 characters portrait, 80 characters landscape,
> and 132 characters landscape.
>
> And Stephen I am sending the file using MIME, but was trying to get the
> file in PDF format to make it easier to read from the PC!

Ah, so you left out a detail or two.

Microsoft Windows reads plain text files just fine, not that I've tried
that in some years. Notepad, IIRC, can read UTF-8 files, including the
ASCII OpenVMS is fond of.

Built in tools on OpenVMS (CONVERT /DOCUMENT) can generate Postscript.
Whether Windows can read that?

The add on converter library tools can get to RTF too, though that is
probably an older version of same, and this particular stuff is VAX:
https://www.digiater.nl/openvms/freeware/v60/cdacvtlib022/freeware_readme.txt
https://www.zx.net.nz/mirror/h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/cdaconverterlibraryv22.pdf

Various of the CDA converters were also part of DECwindows at one point
and may still be, not that I have a good way to check that right now,
and the converters don't seem to be installed on the system I've just
checked.

On looking at this, I'd kinda assume VSI didn't get the CDA viewer and
such, or decided to switch to another viewer for their tooling work.
But I digress.

Ghostscript can convert all sorts of formats, too.

Amd for completeness, there's
https://www.digiater.nl/openvms/freeware/v50/text2rtf/text2rtf.c

--
Pure Personal Opinion | HoffmanLabs LLC

Craig A. Berry wrote:
> On 11/10/22 6:53 AM, Joukj wrote:
>> Craig A. Berry wrote:
>>>
>>> On 11/9/22 11:02 AM, Shael Richmond wrote:
>>>> Is there a version of txt2pdf that can convert files longer that 132
>>>> characters? The one I have only supports 80/132 characters. Trying
>>>> to send a PDF report via e-mail that is around 200 characters.
>>> If what you have came from here;
>>>
>>> http://www.eprg.org/pdfcorner/text2pdf/text2pdf.c
>>>
>>> you could try changing some things like:
>>>
>>> int cols = 80; /* max chars per output line */
>>>
>>> to a different value and recompiling.
>>
>> This changes the line length of the resulting PDF-file. I think the
>> question is about the input TEXT-file. I do not think that is a
>> problem (I tested it with a line of more than 300 characters) with the
>> version 1.2.1 which Bill Pedersen addapted for OpenVMS. You can
>> download the source code for this version via:
>> http://nchrem.tnw.tudelft.nl/openvms/software2.html#TEXT2PDF
>
> You're right. It does say output line length and I wasn't paying
> attention. In which case this is probably not what the OP is using, so
> he should try it.
>
> I didn't know about Bill's version. I dredged up my own variant of this
> one, attached here, that addresses some other problems with the original
> version:
>
> - The number of pages and "locations" is limited only by the amount of
> memory you have instead of blowing up when you hit the limit.
>
> - Added command-line redirection.
>
> - Added command-line arguments to specify top and left margins.
>
> I think I did use this for a while but at some point went back to the
> other program Hoff posted up-thread:
>
> https://www.digiater.nl/openvms/decus/vmslt02b/vu/txt2pdf-c.txt
>
> which was in heavy use in production until a year or two ago.
>
>
>
>
>

Thanks.I merged your version into Bill's one. It is now as version 1.3
on my webpage:
http://nchrem.tnw.tudelft.nl/openvms/software2.html#TEXT2PDF

Jouk