text2pdf for MPE/iX

http://invent3k.external.hp.com/~MGR.WONSIL/text2pdf.html
Freeware text to Adobe PDF Converter
Last updated 13 Nov 2002

Welcome

This is a port of text2pdf, written by Phil Smith of the Electronic Publishing Research Group.
It is a fairly simple program and as its name suggests, it takes a text stream and converts it to a PDF
stream.

For more information, see the official web site.

System Requirements

• Requires MPE/iX 5.0 or later.
• No other special requirements

How to Obtain text2pdf

• To get the original source code go to:
  http://www.ep.cs.nott.ac.uk/pdfcorner/text2pdf/text2pdf.c
  
  or use wget to download it to your system:
  wget http://www.ep.cs.nott.ac.uk/pdfcorner/text2pdf/text2pdf.c
• Get the binary from:
  http://invent3k.external.hp.com/~MGR.WONSIL/text2pdf.tar.Z

How to Install

1. :sh.hpbin.sys -L
2. cd destination
3. tar xvfopz downloadDir/text2pdf.tar.Z

Distribution Highlights

/usr/contrib/bin/

text2pdf - executable program

/usr/contrib/man/

man1/text2pdf.1 - man page

/usr/contrib/src

text2pdf_1.1/text2pdf.c - Source code

How to Compile text2pdf

1. :HELLO user.account
2. :XEQ SH.HPBIN.SYS -L
3. cd /usr/contrib/src/text2pdf_1.1/
4. gcc text2pdf.c
5. mv a.out /usr/contrib/bin/text2pdf

How to Run text2pdf

To see the help, just run: text2pdf -h
(make sure /usr/contrib/bin is in your PATH or type the full path.)

In the shell, you can test the program by creating a pdf of the help:
$ text2pdf -h | text2pdf > text2pdf_help.pdf
This example creates a pdf document with the result of a discfree.
$ callci discfree b | text2pdf > discfree.pdf
To run the program at the CI prompt:
:file syspdf;rec=-1,,b,ascii;save
:run /usr/contrib/bin/text2pdf <sysstart.pub.sys >*syspdf

A possible use for this program is in CGI scripts. As long as you set the MIME type correctly (application/pdf), you will be able to send a pdf document back to the browser.

Known Bugs Under Investigation

• I don’t know if it is a bug, but it certainly is not friendly. If you use the -f (font) option and you
  do not use a valid font name (case-sensitive!), you will get an error when you open the document
  and it will display in the default font (Courier)
• Base 14 Fonts
  1. Courier
  2. Courier-Bold
  3. Courier-BoldOblique
  4. Courier-Oblique
  5. Helvetica
  6. Helvetica-Bold
  7. Helvetica-BoldOblique
  8. Helvetica-Oblique
  9. Symbol
  10. Times-Bold
  11. Times-BoldItalic
  12. Times-Italic
  13. Times-Roman
  14. ZapfDingbats

Change History

• May 7, 2001
• Original port.

• 24 Oct 2001
Expand to 5000 pages. Thanks to Robert Mills for finding that one!
• 13 Nov 2002
Updated tarball