DOPIC

Converts Lotus 123 PIC files from the Psion Spreadsheet into PostScript files.
This text file is slightly updated from the distribution I sent to comp.binaries.psion in
January 1996.

WHAT DO I NEED THIS FOR?

OK, you've created a spreadsheet and a graph of the data, and now you would like to print out the
graph for future reference. You could save the picture as it appears on the screen as a bitmap,
but this will be low resolution and you'd be struggling to use it for a presentation.

An alternative approach is to use an option on the Special menu of the spreadsheet called `Create
PIC file'. This will save the graph to a file in a format called Lotus 123 PIC. This is *not* the
same as Psion PIC bitmap format.

The programs provided here allow you to convert this PIC file into a PostScript print file that
you can send to any PostScript printer to produce an A4-sized picture of the graph. You could
just as easily use this to produce a slide for an overhead projector, for that presentation your
boss asked you to give tomorrow.

DOPIC.OPL and DOPIC.OPO

Source and executable for running on the Psion. This comes up with a dialog box prompting for two
filenames when you run it. The first filename is the name of the PIC file you have just created in
Spreadsheet. It will appear in the \SPR\ directory with a file extension of PIC by default, so
those are the defaults expected by DOPIC.

The second filename is the name of the PostScript file to be produced. This will appear in the
\OPD\ directory by default, although you can of course press TAB to pull up the full file selector.
You will be prompted for confirmation if you try to overwrite an existing file.

DOPIC.C and DOPIC.EXE

It was compiled under MS Visual C++ 1.52 for MS-DOS, though it compiles just as easily for QuickWin.
It is written in ANSI C, not C++.

This source has also compiled successfully with GNU GCC under VMS. That executable is not included
here.

MS-DOS Usage:

DOPIC PICfilename [PSfilename]

Leaving out PSfilename will result in the output file being called the same as the input file, but
with the file extension .PS instead of .PIC.

Usage for other machines:

DOPIC PICfilename PSfilename

flo, 13-Jan-1996

Queries, Suggestions for other conversions, etc. by e-mail to:
Work (preferred): P.Williams@rrds.co.uk
Play: flo@easynet.co.uk