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Emtex
8.4SP6 has been released as a final roll-up of most of the code
changes implemented since the 8.4SP5 release in December 2005.
As Emtex 8.5 is due out this quarter, SP6 will NOT be rolled out to
existing customers, to avoid two upgrades very close together.
SP6 includes the
following changes, among others:
Support for Xerox
Forms
A change has been made
to the way in which VIP implements Xerox forms. Xerox implements
the objects to make forms, i.e. corners and line sections, using a
special system font called forms$ or formsx. VIP has, in the
past, converted these to images but to improve performance for IPDS
printers, VIP now uses the font. Unfortunately, this may have
side-effects in other outputs and currently working jobs may fail
because they now need the forms$/formsx native font.
The main issue with
non-IPDS outputs is where the input job is being scaled down from
300dpi to 240dpi where gaps can appear in the lines and boxes.
This is particularly true of TIFF generating 240dpi output. If
it is possible to change to 300dpi TIFF, the output will be OK.
Irrespective of
resolution, the output from vdd2afp, vdd2pcl and vdd2pdf can look bad
in the viewers for these PDLs. Although the output is expected
to be fine when printed, it may be incorrect if printed from the
viewers themselves.
Changes to
Connect-Spool
Due to changes in the
way connect-spool supports back-up and recovery, Connect now renames
files differently when they are processed. Previously the
original file name would have had an extension of .d<n>, e.g. .d0,
added; now there is no extension added. This change may cause
some connect-spool jobs to fail where the data file name has no
extension because the input client may look for a file with an
extension taken from the set file.
If there are data
files without an extension, the set file should not have an <input>DTAE
statement, i.e. there should be no ADTAE, PCLDTAE, PDFDTAE, PSDTAE or
XDTAE statement. If the data file already has an extension, the
value from the set file is not used.
Other changes to the
functionality are as follows:
-
The CFG option
SPOOL_RECOVERY has been retired. Connect now does NO recovery
when restarted - there is no need. If users have vipexec.exe CFG
option STARTUP_PURGE=YES, it should be removed; it is no longer used
in installs.
-
The CFG option
SPOOL_BACKUP_ON has been retired. Any backup is done before the
job is submitted and the job is run from the backup location.
-
The CFG option
SPOOL_BACKUPFILE_EXT (VDE merge only) has been retired. All
data files are now renamed in the same way (see below).
-
Data file deletion is
now handled by VIPExec via DELETEINPUT=YES in the modifier.
Connect still currently continues to handle profiles.
-
Data files are no
longer renamed with a .d<n> extension or modified with _<job-number>
on backup. ALL data files are now renamed with the job number,
i.e. job12345_<original-name>, before submission. Profiles are
currently not renamed because the profile name appears in VIP's Job
Queue Manager. If backup is not specified, processed files are
moved to a sub-directory within the scan directory called 'scanned'.
All of the retired
parameters are now ignored, so leaving them in place has no adverse
effect.
AFPin Processing of
RDW Data
A number of AFP jobs
will cause the message "Reading type AFPDS specified but data is not
pure AFPDS" to be displayed. The reason for this message is that
the profiles for these jobs contain RECTYPE=AFPDS. It is no
longer valid to use RECTYPE=AFPDS for a data stream that has a leading
4-byte RDW. The value of RECTYPE in these profiles needs to be
changed to VARIABLEUNBLOCK. Any existing profiles with legacy
settings should be reviewed and modified as necessary.
Simultaneous Use of
JOBENDWAIT=NO and NPRO=0
JOBENDWAIT=NO and NPRO=0
are mutually exclusive commands. If both are specified, NPRO=0
will be implemented and JOBENDWAIT=NO will be ignored.
PS2VDD White Commands
Support for the
following commands has been removed in SP6. The output clients
will now handle these functions automatically.
-
INPUT_RASTERISE_OPAQUE_WHITE, PSIN_WHITE
-
RASTERISE_SHADING,
RASTERISE_COLOUR
-
PSIN_RECTANGLES_AS_IMAGES
The use of the first
two of these commands will result in the message: "... no
longer supported; please enable half-toning in the output client if
required".
To enable half-toning,
add the following command to the Config or Profile.
HALFTONING = ...
Refer to the User
Guide or contact David Kirk at Atac for more details.
Specification of
PSInterp Path
The implemenation of
Outline Font support has resulted in a change to the behaviour of PS &
PDF input jobs in SP6. The following parameter now needs to be
added to generic.cfg to set the default path for PSInterp.
PSINTERP_HOME=C:\VIP8.4\bin\psinterp
Failure to provide
this parameter will result in the error message ... "PSINTERP_HOME not
set in generic.cfg; PSInterp will not be used to render fonts." ...
being displayed when a job is output to IPDS or any VPA client.
All future releases of
VIP will include this parameter in the default generic.cfg.
VDE OBJECT CONDITION
Testing for BACK
The behaviour of the
VDE OBJECT CONDITION was broken in SP5 MU01 and MU02. The SP6
release now restores the correct behaviour as listed below, which was
also fixed in SP5 MU03.
A Condition Object is
a one time "if" statement. It is therefore impossible for it to
become true on the back side of a page at the job level, since the
test is evaluated once on the first side of the passed object.
Withdrawal of Support
for VDEF Indexing
Emtex is discontinuing
support for the older version of VIP indexing (VDEF/VC) and replacing
this with VDE indexing. This will be formally announced as part
of the next major release. Whilst we are not disabling the old
form of indexing we will not be maintaining it and, therefore, will
not be fixing bugs related to it.
In the meantime, we
are helping customers to migrate to VDE indexing which offers more
advanced functionality. Please contact David Kirk at Atac for
assistance.
VDD2IPDS Accounting
The number of sides
reported by VDD2IPDS Accounting when printing to Simplex and Duplex
printers has been changed in SP6.
For example: A
job with 3 simplex and 6 duplex pages (15 sides in total) printed to
simplex and duplex printers will now report the following:
A simplex printer will
report: 15 pages & 15 sides
A duplex printer will
report: 9 pages & 15 sides
TIF2VDI Updated to
Read Generic CFG File
TIF2VDI has been
corrected in SP6 so that it complies with the use of the Generic MAP
command as described in the User Guide.
VDE Editor Changes
In preparation for new
functionality to be added to the product in version 8.5, the following
changes have been made to the VDE Editor:
-
The VDE Editor now
opens scripts in a tabbed window, labelled with the filename of the
script being edited and the VDE Editor button remains active allowing
more than one script to be opened simultaneously. Note:
All editing functions such as undo/redo and search functions are
confined to a single tab. They do not interfere with or relate
to any other tab/script.
-
It is now possible to
open and edit scripts from different directories. Note: A
mouse roll-over on the tab gives the full path of the file being
edited.
-
If more than one tab
is open, the name of the tab currently being edited is displayed in
bold text.
-
If you edit a script,
an asterisk appears in the tab to show that edits have not been saved.
The asterisk disappears when the script is saved.
-
If you select "Save
as", tabs for both the original file and the new file will be
displayed.
-
If there are
syntax errors in any of the open scripts when "Close all tabs" is
selected, warnings are given and the focus switches to each of the
scripts containing an error.
-
If you close a
tab/script which has unsaved edits, the warning about losing any
changes now refers to the file name and path of the script.
-
A lock symbol is
displayed on the tab of "read only" scripts and all the editor
features for that script are greyed out.
-
License strings are
now added to a script when a syntax check is performed or the file is
saved, even if there are link errors.
Viewer Changes
The Viewer has been
changed to require a "paper size" for each job. Previously
attempts have been made to "guess" the correct paper size for jobs
where a default OUTPUTPAPERSIZE has not been set in either the
VIEWER.CFG or the job profile, but these guesses have not always
produced the desired result. If a job is sent to the Viewer and
it does not contain a default paper size for the job to use (or no
default has been set in VIEWER.CFG), the Viewer will display a warning
message stating that the paper size has not been set and will prompt
the user to select a paper size before the job is displayed.
Our recommendation is
to add an OUTPUTPAPERSIZE= command to the VIEWER.CFG to act as a
default for all jobs.
Font
Thickening/Thinning
A problem with font
thickening/thinning has been identified in SP6 (ER20469). If
either of the Profile options THIN_FONTS or THICKEN_FONTS are used,
the thickening or thinning operation will be applied twice, resulting
in an excessively thick or thin rendering of the font. Any
customers using THIN_FONTS or THICKEN_FONTS will require patched
output clients. Contact David Kirk at Atac for further advice.
ICC Profile Support
A problem has been
identified with the ICC Profile support in SP6 which means that any
customers wishing to use ICC Profiles will require patched output
clients. |