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Conference iosg::all-in-1_v30

Title:*OLD* ALL-IN-1 (tm) Support Conference
Notice:Closed - See Note 4331.l to move to IOSG::ALL-IN-1
Moderator:IOSG::PYE
Created:Thu Jan 30 1992
Last Modified:Tue Jan 23 1996
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:4343
Total number of notes:18308

877.0. "7/8 bits conversion" by SWETSC::WESTERBACK (Mimsy were the borogroves) Tue Jun 16 1992 20:29

    Hi,
    
    A customer called in and wanted some advice on an application
    they have made, but want to speed up.
    
    This application uses a long report which comes from some external
    source as a text file in 7 bit format. This file is first converted
    to 8 bit, then again converted to WPS-PLUS. Then it is mailed to
    various recipients. 
    
    The problem is that these two conversions take a long time. Since
    there is really no need for WPS-PLUS functionalities here, they
    will skip that part, and send it as a text file, which should be OK.
    But then they thought, is it possible to also leave it as 7 bit, and
    put something in so that when the recipients print the report it will
    either be converted at that time to 8 bit, or the printer will be
    switched to 7 bit. And they would also like the same thing for 
    reading the report on screen, but that's not essential.
    
    Any ideas on this ?
    
    Thanks,
    Hans
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
877.1What does 7->8 bit conversion do..??TAV02::CHAIMSemper ubi Sub ubi .....Wed Jun 17 1992 11:4617
>    
>    This application uses a long report which comes from some external
>    source as a text file in 7 bit format. This file is first converted
>    to 8 bit, then again converted to WPS-PLUS. Then it is mailed to
>    various recipients. 
>    

Could you pleae be a little more specific as to what your 7-bit to 8-bit
conversion does? 

Normally, the standard ASCII characters resides in the 7-bit range, and the
8-bit range contain MCS or Supplemental characters.

Thanks,

Cb.
877.2Use a new Handling typeIOSG::NEWLANDRichard Newland, IOSG, REO1-D/4AWed Jun 17 1992 14:2521
The 7-bit format file could be treated as a Foreign format file.  You could
then create a new handling type with PRINT and READ special functions to
convert the 7-bit format file during a Print or Read operation.  When the
7-bit format file is imported into ALL-IN-1 it's handling should set to the
new type.  All Print and Read operations on this document will then use the
defined functions to convert the file.  When this document is mailed it
should be attached to a normal mail message. 

A disadvantage of doing the above is that the conversion will have to be
performed each time every recipient reads or prints the document.  I would 
say that it is better to perform the conversion once when the document is 
being created, and therefore mail the document in a format which is easier 
to process.  

It's difficult to comment swithing the printer to 7-bit without knowing 
much more about the printer and what 7-bit really means, i.e. only 7 data 
bits are received or only 7 out 8 bits are processed.


Richard
877.3have you tried just working with the 7-bit data directly?SKNNER::SKINNERI'm doing my EARSWed Jun 17 1992 16:5210
I too would like to understand the importance of the 7-bit to 8-bit translation.

Normally, devices that are "set to" 8-bit, such as terminals and printers, can
handle just fine 7-bit characters.  It's devices set to 7-bit that can't handle
8-bit!

So unless your 7-bit to 8-bit conversion actually does something else, it doesn't
really stike me why it's needed at all.

/Marty
877.4SWETSC::WESTERBACKMimsy were the borogrovesWed Jun 17 1992 17:2514
    Well, the problem is that the application generates Swedish 7-bit which
    uses e.g ASCII 91-93 for ���. So when shown on an 8 bit device this 
    comes out as [ \ ]. So it's more like mapping Swedish character set
    into GL, I guess.
    
    The conversion turned out to be a simple parsing of the file, and
    replacing ASCII 91 with ASCII 196, and so on.
    
    Richards ideas about handling type sounded OK to the customer. But
    they were going to try just skipping the WPS-PLUS conversion, maybe
    that will speed it up enough. 
    
    Thanks for your input,
    Hans