Line Printer Tool (discussion thread)

[Albert Richheimer]

Here is the discussion thread for my Line Printer Tool posted in the Source Code department.

[Bud Durland]

I read through the code, because I'm an "old timer", and the thread references NetWare. Some nice tricks there. I'm curious why you are shelling to NPRINT. Before we went to the dark side (Windows server), all my PB/CC programs worked flawlessly using either LPRINT ATTACH to the queue name, or using CAPTURE to redirect LPTx. Windows has NET USE, but I've found that sometime PB is finnicky with it depending on the bit-ness of the OS an the server OS.

[Albert Richheimer]

I read through the code, because I'm an "old timer", and the thread references NetWare. Some nice tricks there. I'm curious why you are shelling to NPRINT. Before we went to the dark side (Windows server), all my PB/CC programs worked flawlessly using either LPRINT ATTACH to the queue name, or using CAPTURE to redirect LPTx. Windows has NET USE, but I've found that sometime PB is finnicky with it depending on the bit-ness of the OS an the server OS.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Bud! In the era of DOS I have had access to the NetWare Client API. So I would have done the capture by API. Since 32bit-Windows this is not possible anymore, and the 16bit-programs in SYS:PUBLIC only work up to Windows XP (32bit). This is the reason I am resorting to 16bit NPRINT.EXE in XP. If I remember correctly, NPRINT is not part of NOES 6.5 (NetWare Open Enterprise Server) anymore, so I had to copy it from a former version.

It would be great if there is a way to attach to the NetWare Queue from Win 7 and above. Printing through the queue is preferable to TCP printing, because printer error conditions are reported via client message, and print jobs started won't get lost when the printer is offline. I will do some research on this topic. Having time for such considerations is one of the advantages of being retired

Added later:
Just had a look at the NOES Client docs, it says:

The following Novell Client for Windows XP/2003 features are not included in the Client for Open Enterprise Server:

• Compatibility with any version of Windows other than Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2008 R2. The Novell Client 4.91 for Windows continues to support Windows XP and 2003.
• Compatibility to NetWare 5.0 and all prior versions.
• Graphical Login at Windows boot. There is no direct concept of this in Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7, because the Graphical Identification and Authentication (GINA) credential input extension model was replaced by the credential provider model. For more information, see Create Custom Login Experiences With Credential Providers For Windows Vista (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ magazine/cc163489.aspx) and Chapter 3, “Authenticating to a OES Network,” on page 35.
• Queue-based or NDPS printing support. Printing support is provided by iPrint

[Bud Durland]

Looking through that manual was a walk down memory lane, for sure.

[Albert Richheimer]

Looking through that manual was a walk down memory lane, for sure.

Appreciating memories is a sure sign of getting older, isn't it? I have started with programming and operating mainframes in the early seventies. Then the computers I worked with became smaller and smaller...

One of the more significant experiences was 1983 programming for the first ancestor of NetWare, InfoShare created by Keith Teruya and Associates, running on a specialized hardware, a little box powered by a Zilog Z80 and an Intel 80186.

Cheers,
Albert

[Albert Richheimer]

Did a refinement on the Line Printer Tool – selectable default pitch for each printer. The full source code is here.