Re: Subject: Re: pdf2xy routine

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from Patricia M Godfrey  on Sun, 9 Jan
2005 15:09:37 -0500

Patricia:

> Well, I fixed the Path, but still no go. If there's a problem with SFN,
> how come Carl's works? Or am I entering the command incorrectly?

I don't know. But I tracked down the SFN problem -- it had to do with yet
another child frame and a post-v117 change that was probably not made publicly
available and so impact limited to me (maybe). But I might have given it to
you(?). Take a look at frame {{5ab,ab/nv,st,st/nv}} -- does your copy use
Save/Get 51 and maybe also 52, or does it use Save/Get 01? If 51+52, that's
your problem.

Carl reminds us that Ghostscript's *BIN* directory must be in the DOS PATH --
although I *thought*(?) GS did that automatically at installation time (maybe
not, since you had to "fix" it -- make sure it's BIN!). Anyway, PDF2Xy works
fine for me. Your REGistry entries look good, you've got all the right files
in BIN, and you don't need POSTGHST.PRN for this... You'll need to sniff
around the skew-whiff a bit more. There could conceivably be a timing error of
some sort. Check this: try to run it, give it time to execute, then when you
are left with an empty VIEWPDF.TXT window, shell to DOS and look in Editor's
directory for any file VIEWPDF*, especially VIEWPDF.TMP. Does VIEWPDF.*TMP*
exist? What's in it?

If you really want to solve this, the very best way is to trap the command that
U2 issues to the operating system, inspect it for abnormalities, and then
execute it manually. That way you can see exactly what is happening. Wanna
try?

There's a line in the frame that says:
BX dos/nv/x/z /c  -output \VIEWPDF.TMP ""Q2

Now that line is going to be too long to fit on the CMline, so you have to trap
it in a text window. This requires a little bit of invasion into the frame. I
suggest you make a copy of the frame, put the copy immediately above the
default frame, and alter the copy (then LOADHELP, obviously). Change
the line above as follows:

BX ne/100Q2 GT dos/nv/x/z /c  -output \VIEWPDF.TMP ""

(Real code encoded below.) Now try the frame again. What you'll see in the
window is the actual command being issued to DOS and GS to create a text file
from a PDF. Copy that command, go to a DOS prompt in Editor's directory, paste
it in, execute, and watch what happens. You should get some real clues from
this. Since you're using 9x, it is just possible that the command line is *too
long* for 9x COMMAND.COM to process. In fact, that's a very distinct
possibility. (Hey! You like 9x? You got it.) The solution is KMD.EXE. *If*
(if) a truncated command line is the apparent problem, then change the line
above as follows:

BX ne/100Q2 GT dos/nv/x/z /c kmd/c  -output \VIEWPDF.TMP
""

Good luck. R.

XPLeNCODE v2.0
b-gin [UNTITLED]
[BX_]ne/100[Q2_][GT_]dos/nv/x/z /c {<}PV15{>} -output {<}PV14
{>}\VIEWPDF.TMP "{<}PV50{>}"{<}EX1{>};*;[cr|lf]
-nd
XPLeNCODE

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
-----------------------------