PERL,INGRES,PROGRAMMING

this : Plain text ASCII report (plain.jpg) into this : PostScript report (postscript.jpg) How things work at the moment: PC's with Windows OS run terminal emulators which connect to Unix/Linux servers. When the ABF application generates a report its output is dumped on disc as a plain text file which is subsequently send to a network or local printer. When local printing is required (the printer is attached locally to the PC running the emulator) then the emulator opens a direct connection to the local printer port by using special escapes (called transparent ot pass-thru printing) and then forwards the plain text file to it. In either case the file is forwarded to the printer in RAW format, bypassing any printer drivers and thus is printed as-is. The same process holds also true for reports generated by OpenRoad on Windows The disadvandes of this approach are : (1). although sent in RAW format, the interpretation lies on the printer at hand; for example some print