ALTERNATE HOST CONSIDERATIONS | Page |
Alternate Host Translation
The data stream from the alternate host is not sent directly through the ULTRA to the attached printer. Rather, all characters must first pass through the appropriate translate table, even if the printer uses the same data format as the alternate host.
If both the printer and the alternate host use the ASCII character set, the data is passed through Translate Table #3 — ASCII to ASCII. If using a Xerox printer in EBCDIC mode, the data will be converted with Translate Table #6 — ASCII to EBCDIC. For more information, refer to Section 7 — Translate Tables.
Although these tables may be edited by the user, AGILE advises against doing so, particularly because these tables are also used to generate configuration reports, and changing them may corrupt output to the printer.
Other Considerations
The connection between the alternate host and the ULTRA may be tested by sending a print screen job to the printer. Users with problems in printing properly formatted documents from the alternate host may print a buffer dump of the data being sent from the alternate host to the printer. Refer to Section 4 — Troubleshooting for details on printing these reports.
If using a serial alternate host that is configured to use CTS (Clear to Send) flow control — also known as “hardware” handshaking, Option #41 must be set to “Yes” (the default setting). If the serial alternate host uses XON/ XOFF (software) handshaking, set this option to “No.” For parallel interfacing, this option can be ignored. Make the appropriate choice, referring for instructions to Section 8 — Front Panel Configuration or Section 9 — Coax Host Configuration.
The only other configuration options that will affect printed output from the alternate host are Option #10 — Output in ASCII or EBCDIC and Option #25 — Centronics or Dataproducts Parallel, but these are configured to conform to the printer and its interface and are not specific to the alternate host. Otherwise, data is sent from the alternate host to the printer without any transformation, so the alternate host software requirements are the same as they would be if the alternate host were attached directly to the printer. As such, all page formatting (e.g., column width, line spacing, form feeds, etc.) must be handled by the alternate host software application.
