Check this box if pyILPER is connected to a PIL-Box via a serial device. The name and the baud rate of the serial device are configured here. See the setup section of the installation guide for details.
If you configure the serial device with the change, button another window opens where you can select or enter the name of the serial device the PIL-Box is connected to. The drop down list shows some recommendations for the device name but you are free to enter an arbitrary device name here.
The baud rate must match the hardware configuration of the PIL-Box. See the PIL-Box documentation for details. If the baud rate is set to "Auto" pyILPER tries to determine the baud rate automatically.
The "Enable IDY frames" option enables the PIL-Box to transmit the IDY frames to pyILPER. This causes an increase of traffic on the serial USB device. This option is enabled by default and required to operate the virtual keyboard of the terminal emulator with the HP-71B or the thermal printer HP-82162A with the HP-41C.
The "autoreconnect" option enables the interface to (re)connect to the PIL-Box after the device has been plugged (back) in. Note: Autoreconnect does not work if the computer is running very slowly. In this case, you must reconnect manually.
Check this box to use virtual HP-IL over TCP/IP. The configuration parameters are:
Check this box to emulate a PIL-Box by means of a TCP/IP socket server. This allows for the connection of J-F Garnier's DOS calculator emulators to pyILPER. The emulators must run in an appropriate virtual machine that allows the redirection of the serial port communication to a TCP/IP socket server. The server port must match the serial port redirection configuration of the virtual machine.
Note: you must first start pyILPER (server) and then the virtual machine (client).
This is the location of the log files for scope and the printer output (q.v.). The default is the $HOME directory of the current user.
pyILPER checks for LIFUTILS installations in the following order:
Therefore, the custom installation location must only be specified if the LIFUTILS were installed in a nonstandard way.
You can alter the font size of the display. This affects all tabs or windows of that type. This setting can be overridden by local settings.
Configures the size of a printer dot in the printer display. The dot size of the PDF output is not affected. This setting can be overridden by local settings.
Configures the width of the scrollable printer output window. A higher value scales up the presentation of text and graphics. This setting can be overridden by local settings.
Configures the size of a printer dot in the printer display. The dot size of the PDF output is not affected. This setting can be overridden by local settings.
You can set the font size of the directory listing. This affects all tabs or windows of that type. This setting can be overridden by local settings.
You may choose "A4" or "letter" format. This controls the paper size of PDF output and the paper size setting of the virtual HP7470A plotter. A restart is required for the changes take to effect.
This checkbox enables the addition of a byte order mark (BOM) to the UTF-8 text files created by pyILPER. Enable this option if other Windows programs do not recognize the UTF-8 encoding of pyILPER log files correctly. This option is only available on Windows. Note: Since the BOM is inserted at the beginning of a file, all log files must be removed to have an effect when changing this option.
The Qt framework used to implement pyILPER implements a number of styles to adapt the interface created with Qt to the system user interface. Qt applications use a default style for each operating system, which is defined by the Qt maintainers. Unfortunately, the control elements of the default style for Windows 11 in light mode are quite difficult to see. If you are not happy with the default style, use the Fusion style from the list of styles in the combo box. Other styles might be poorly maintained or have fewer features, like missing dark mode awareness.
The initial configuration of virtual HP-IL devices in pyILPER is:
| Device name | Device type |
|---|---|
| Scope | Scope |
| Printer1 | Generic Printer |
| Terminal1 | Terminal |
| Plotter1 | Plotter |
| Drive1 | Drive |
| Drive2 | Drive |
With the device configuration dialog, you can add or delete virtual HP-IL devices and change the position of their tab. To create a new device press the Add button, select the desired device type, and assign a unique name. The device name must begin with a letter followed by up to 9 letters or digits. The device name is shown on the tab. For device types that have a logging facility, the device name defines the name of the log file in the current working directory.
To remove or change the position of a virtual HP-IL device, select the device from the list and click the appropriate buttons.
The position of the device tabs is corresponding to the position of the device in the loop inside of pyILPER.
Note: The scope tab cannot be removed. If the configuration of virtual HP-IL devices was changed, you have to restart the application for the changes take to effect.
With this configuration dialog, the 16 predefined pens for the HP7470A plotter can be configured. For each pen, the following properties can be specified:
With this configuration dialog, you can define the key combinations ALT-A to ALT-Z as typing aids for the terminal. If you type one of these ALT key combinations, the text defined for that key is sent to the calculator. The following shortcut types are available:
| Shortcut type | Action |
|---|---|
| Input only | The text is sent to the calculator |
| Input+Endline | The text is sent to the calculator, followed by an endline |
| Input+2*Cursor left | The text is sent to the calculator, followed by 2 times cursor left. If you specify, for instance, "TAPE( )" as text, the cursor is positioned between both parentheses. |
| Input+2*Cursor left+Insert | As above, but toggling insert mode in addition. |
The Reset button restores the default configuration of the keys.
Note: The key combinations ALT-L and ALT-I are reserved and cannot be used as a user-defined shortcut.
Restarts the application if, for example, you forgot to plug in the PIL-Box when launching the application.
Terminates the application.