Notes on the Iona fconvert setup:
---------------------------------

I really like fconvert. It's kind of like the SVR4 lp subsystem's Good
Point, except it detects the file type automatically (instead of having
to be told it from the command line), and can be run standalone.

I think I might add hooks for automagic fconvert conversion in later
versions of PLP, as it's just too neat to let slide. I'm currently
trying to think of ways to use it with Z-options...

--j. (Justin Mason <jmason@iona.ie>).

INDEX OF FILES:

-rw-r--r--   fconvert.config

	The configuration file, where all the magic happens.  This is
	used to specify commands to run to change one format to
	another.

	Mostly, this is an average sort of fconvert config file, in
	that it contains the usual image->ps conversions; however, some
	of the conversions are less normal, and these are what makes it
	really useful for the printing subsystem.

	ascii	ps	"mp -a4 -subject \"$JOBNAME\" -alias \"$USERNAME\""

	This line, in particular, is important -- all the formats that
	have been identified as "text" are converted to PostScript (and
	possibly from there to HPGL, or whatever). However, the 
	conversion program is "mp", the text pretty-printer, and the
	command uses filter information that's been taken from the
	PLP filter system.


-rwxr-xr-x   convert-to

	A simple wrapper for fconvert -- the reasons for this are as
	follows:

	1. we can redirect errors from fconvert so they are written into
	   an "errors" file -- if fconvert fails, this file will be
	   bounced back to the user via mail;

	2. we can get the information from the filter arguments (-h, -n etc.)
	   and put this into the environment for possible use by other
	   filters invoked by fconvert, as the ascii->ps line does, above;

	3. we can set up the PATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH and other environment
	   variables that may be needed by fconvert-invoked filters.


-rwxr-xr-x   ps-to-other

	This is a _really_ simple wrapper for gs, which is only used to save
	verbosity in the fconvert.config file.

-rw-r--r--   magic

	This is some relevant excerpts of the Iona magic file -- note that
	some older magic programs can't really cope with "string" entries
	with funny escape codes in them, so some of the files may be
	id'ed as "data".


