source: projects/README.txt @ 5

Last change on this file since 5 was 1, checked in by sven, 16 years ago

Erstimport

File size: 3.1 KB
Line 
1
2   The Paper tape project
3   ======================
4
5   The paper tape project is a big crowd of programs, scripts and binary
6   data and experiments which made it possible to read and punch
7   paper tapes.
8
9   Everything is written in German, so if you don't understand something,
10   feel free to mail me (technikum29.de @ - nospam - @ sven; read it the
11   other way around).
12
13   Sven, 05.05.2008
14
15   You can read much more about the projects at:
16     * http://privat.technikum29.de/svens-projekte/Lochstreifen
17     * http://dev.technikum29.de/wiki/Projekte/Lochstreifen
18
19
20   1. Perl paper tape tools
21   ------------------------
22   There are some self-explanatory perl scripts which draw paper tapes
23   (ASCII art), generate labels in different "fonts", parse ASCII
24   number files, etc.
25
26
27   2. Userspace punch driver
28   -------------------------
29   This is a linux ppdev driver for the FACIT 4070 Tape punch-75 CPS
30   paper tape puncher (parallel port). The file puncher.c implements
31   this driver.
32   After connecting the puncher to the computer and before switching
33   it on, you must run setoff-strobe[.c], otherwise it will directly
34   start punching like an idiot.
35
36   The usage of puncher[.c] is quite simple:
37
38     $ cat files-to-punch | ./puncher
39
40   of course you need the ppdev driver in your linux kernel. Make sure
41   /dev/parport0 exists.
42
43     # modprobe ppdev
44     # chmod 777 /dev/parport0
45
46   There is a nice interactive perl frontend which generates a label
47   for your paper tape:
48
49     $ ./puncher-frontend.pl files-to-punch
50
51
52   3. User space paper tape reader
53   -------------------------------
54   This ppdev userspace driver drives the GHIELMETTI FER 201. Most
55   things from the puncher driver also apply here, especially the
56   setoff-strobe program which stops the reader from running all
57   the time.
58
59   Usage of reader[.c]:
60
61     $ ./reader > read-in-file.bin
62
63   The program is not really completed, thus it won't correctly
64   detect the end of the paper tape, but it stops automatically
65   some time after the paper tape run out.
66
67
68   4. Paper Tape Visualisator
69   --------------------------
70   The visualisator program is a modular C program which draws
71   nice pictures of paper tapes using the cairo graphics library.
72   Thus it can produce SVG and PNG output and is highly
73   configurable. There exists multiple frontends, among others a
74   terminal frontend (CLI); a web frontend (PHP & Ajax), using
75   the terminal program; and a very nice GTK user interface which
76   is capable of loading very huge files (multiple MegaBytes)
77   because it doesn't have to render the whole paper tape at once.
78
79   Especially the gtk frontend still tends to crash unexpectedly,
80   besides there is a very strange bug while rendering the paper
81   tape partially in the viewport which I could not solve until
82   now.
83
84   The PHP frontend is quite complex, but very friendly to DAUs
85   (a german expression for "PEBKAC") due to the ability to fold
86   the huge formular. It should be running stable but hasn't
87   really be tested so far. Thanks to caching every generated image
88   it should even stand very much rendering requests.
89
90
91
Note: See TracBrowser for help on using the repository browser.
© 2008 - 2013 technikum29 • Sven Köppel • Some rights reserved
Powered by Trac
Expect where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons 3.0 License