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Programming in COBOL on a Unix mainframe - I'm trying to get Code 128
barcodes to print on an HP LaserJet 2430n. The appropriate PCL code is sent
via a print file and ends up in a Unix print queue. Everything is
recognized, except the start and stop characters of the barcode escape
sequence. They are passed as a Hex A2 and Hex A4, respectively, (and show
as such when displayed in hex) but are somehow "lost" come time to
physically print them on the HP. All I'm getting are the data characters
and check character in the barcodes, thus making them unscannable.

When I physically send those hex characters to the printer, they come out as
an inverted L for the Hex A2 and a double pipe for the Hex A4, which are way
off. Would they be getting mucked up going from EBCDIC to ASCII? Are there
any print queue settings on the Unix side I need to change? Filters,
perhaps? (The HP will successfully print a Code 128 barcode via other
methods, so it's not the printer itself.) Or is this simply not possible to
do??

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

John B.

On Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:00:45 -0400, John B. wrote:

> Programming in COBOL on a Unix mainframe - I'm trying to get Code 128
> barcodes to print on an HP LaserJet 2430n. The appropriate PCL code is
> sent via a print file and ends up in a Unix print queue. Everything is
> recognized, except the start and stop characters of the barcode escape
> sequence. They are passed as a Hex A2 and Hex A4, respectively, (and show
> as such when displayed in hex) but are somehow "lost" come time to
> physically print them on the HP. All I'm getting are the data characters
> and check character in the barcodes, thus making them unscannable.
>
> When I physically send those hex characters to the printer, they come out
> as an inverted L for the Hex A2 and a double pipe for the Hex A4, which
> are way off. Would they be getting mucked up going from EBCDIC to ASCII?
> Are there any print queue settings on the Unix side I need to change?
> Filters, perhaps? (The HP will successfully print a Code 128 barcode via
> other methods, so it's not the printer itself.) Or is this simply not
> possible to do??

Could you please clarify the setup? What do you mean by a "Unix
mainframe"? While there have been a couple of versions of UNIX for
mainframes they are very rare and I believe they all use ASCII not EBCDIC.

Are you printing from a mainframe running e.g. MVS to an AIX LPD server?
If so then yes, the character code translation probably is messing it up.
If this is the case then you may need to experiment to see what characters
get turned into the ones you want - running dd on AIX with conv=ebcdic or
conv=ibm may help here.

If the print queue on AIX is the "jetdirect" type (it doesn't have to be,
they also support LPD) it will need to be set to binary mode to pass non
text characters.

Where are you seeing these xA2 and xA4 codes? On the EBCDIC or ASCII side?

Regards, Ian

On Apr 4, 1:15 pm, Ian Northeast <i...@house-from-hell.demon.co.uk>
wrote:
> On Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:00:45 -0400, John B. wrote:
> > Programming in COBOL on a Unix mainframe - I'm trying to get Code 128
> > barcodes to print on an HP LaserJet 2430n. The appropriate PCL code is
> > sent via a print file and ends up in a Unix print queue. Everything is
> > recognized, except the start and stop characters of the barcode escape
> > sequence. They are passed as a Hex A2 and Hex A4, respectively, (and show
> > as such when displayed in hex) but are somehow "lost" come time to
> > physically print them on the HP. All I'm getting are the data characters
> > and check character in the barcodes, thus making them unscannable.
>
> > When I physically send those hex characters to the printer, they come out
> > as an inverted L for the Hex A2 and a double pipe for the Hex A4, which
> > are way off. Would they be getting mucked up going from EBCDIC to ASCII?
> > Are there any print queue settings on the Unix side I need to change?
> > Filters, perhaps? (The HP will successfully print a Code 128 barcode via
> > other methods, so it's not the printer itself.) Or is this simply not
> > possible to do??
>
> Could you please clarify the setup? What do you mean by a "Unix
> mainframe"? While there have been a couple of versions of UNIX for
> mainframes they are very rare and I believe they all use ASCII not EBCDIC.

He may be referring to the USS ("Unix System Services") component of
OS/390 and it's followons. If so, then he probably is working in
EBCDIC (CP037 or CP038). (FWIW, OS/390 was certified as Unix'95 by The
Open Group).

[snip]

Found the problem. Turns out I needed to use the "pass-through filter"
option in the Unix printer setup. Barcodes now print and scan. Thanks all!

John B.

"John B." <jlb@computac.com> wrote in message
news:1175698892.369484@nfs-db1.segnet.com...
> Programming in COBOL on a Unix mainframe - I'm trying to get Code 128
> barcodes to print on an HP LaserJet 2430n. The appropriate PCL code is
sent
> via a print file and ends up in a Unix print queue. Everything is
> recognized, except the start and stop characters of the barcode escape
> sequence. They are passed as a Hex A2 and Hex A4, respectively, (and show
> as such when displayed in hex) but are somehow "lost" come time to
> physically print them on the HP. All I'm getting are the data characters
> and check character in the barcodes, thus making them unscannable.
>
> When I physically send those hex characters to the printer, they come out
as
> an inverted L for the Hex A2 and a double pipe for the Hex A4, which are
way
> off. Would they be getting mucked up going from EBCDIC to ASCII? Are
there
> any print queue settings on the Unix side I need to change? Filters,
> perhaps? (The HP will successfully print a Code 128 barcode via other
> methods, so it's not the printer itself.) Or is this simply not possible
to
> do??
>
> Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
>
> John B.
>
>