PB Vision Question

[Michael K. Dealey]

I must be doing something wrong or the README.DOC is wrong.
I just recently purchased Vision for the fun of it (hey, $20, worth a spin) and was trying to figure out how to print the help file.

The README.DOC says to run PRINTDOC.EXE in the \VISION subdirectory (which I find to be incorrect already since it's the main directory itself (C:\VISION is how it installed). But I cannot find this program.

I've run the BUILD.BAT and it looked like it ran correctly but I can find no such file "PRINTDOC.EXE". I do find a directory under the name PRINTDOC. Do I have to compile the files in that directory myself to creat this .EXE?

I installed from a download, not disc, so maybe there's some
difference?

Any help is appreciated. Oh, also, if I get it work do you think
I will be able to print to a USB printer, if not from pure DOS then from a Windows console?

-feeling stupid.

-Michael.



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[Lance Edmonds]

Unless the USB-connected printer driver supports printing from DOS by capturing the print data to say, LPT1, and redirecting it to the USB port, you wont be able to print from DOS at all. This requires Windows to be running, and the printer driver must be installed, of course!

If you have a file on disk that you want to print (or you can send the print data to a disk file from an app, etc), then my DOSPRINT utility will likely be able to help you with a USB printer -- see www.dosprint.com for a fully functional evaluation version. DOSPRINT requires Windows to be running too.

In any case, the following code should be present in \VISION\BUILD.BAT, and as you can see, this should compile the PRINTDOC.EXE file and move it to the \VISION folder, and fulfill the instructions you refer:

...
REM Build PRINTDOC.EXE utility.
REM
CD C:\WORKSHOP\PRINTDOC
C:\PB35\PBC PRINTDOC.BAS /CE /DEC:\WORKSHOP\PRINTDOC /DUC:\VISION\LIB /DSC:\VISION\INCLUDE;C:\WORKSHOP\PRINTDOC /DLC:\VISION\LIB
C:\WORKSHOP\ATTACH PRINTDOC
MOVE PRINTDOC.EXE C:\VISION
...

------------------
Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Michael K. Dealey]

I was hoping not to have to bother anyone about this again but I'm
stumped. I still cannot get PRINTDOC.EXE to build. After this line
in the batch file:

CD C:\WORKSHOP\PRINTDOC
C:\PB35\PBC PRINTDOC.BAS /CE /DEC:\WORKSHOP\PRINTDOC /DUC:\VISION\LIB /DSC:\VISION\INCLUDE;C:\WORKSHOP\PRINTDOC /DLC:\VISION\LIB

I get the following error:

C:\VISION\INCLUDE\WINDOW.BI(221:7)error 493: Compiler file not 
   found. $LINK "PBVISION.PBL"
                ^  
then:
C:\WORKSHOP\ATTACH PRINTDOC
   MOVE PRINTDOC.EXE C:\VISION
could not locate .\PRINTDOC\PRINTDOC.EXE

So, just FYI, here's what I did: I broke up the BUILD.BAT file into sections to test each and make sure that everything else was compiling ok, and it was (although, I did not run the upgrade section of the batch file..I wasn't upgrading). This was the only error I got. Also, here is my PATH:

PATH=C:\DOS;C:\MOUSE;C:\IOMEGA;C:\PKWARE;C:\PB35;C:\VISION;C:\WORKSHOP;C:\VBDOS

So, do I need to add C:\VISION\;C:\VISION\LIB explicitly to my path or at least to the batch command? Any idea what's wrong?

Lance, as far as printing after I finally get this working, I may try your DOSPrint (sounds very useful) but I have a small printer I can hook up to the serial port if needed.

Thanks for any help.

-Michael.

Originally posted by Lance Edmonds:

In any case, the following code should be present in \VISION\BUILD.BAT, and as you can see, this should compile the PRINTDOC.EXE file and move it to the \VISION folder, and fulfill the instructions you refer:

...
REM Build PRINTDOC.EXE utility.
REM
CD C:\WORKSHOP\PRINTDOC
C:\PB35\PBC PRINTDOC.BAS /CE /DEC:\WORKSHOP\PRINTDOC /DUC:\VISION\LIB /DSC:\VISION\INCLUDE;C:\WORKSHOP\PRINTDOC /DLC:\VISION\LIB
C:\WORKSHOP\ATTACH PRINTDOC
MOVE PRINTDOC.EXE C:\VISION
...

[/B]

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[This message has been edited by Michael K. Dealey (edited April 17, 2003).]

[Gary Stout]

Try moving a copy of PBVISION.PBL to your PB compiler directory and
see if thie helps. You could also add the PB Vision and Workshop pathes to your PB compiler setup (Includes & PBL directories). It has been a long time since I used PB Vision, but what you are describing seems to bring back memories of problems such as these when first getting started.

Hopefully, this will help..



------------------
Gary Stout
[email protected]
[email protected]

[Lance Edmonds]

PBVISION.PBL should have been placed in the C:\VISION\LIB folder during installation.

If PBVISION.PBL is not present then you should investigate that aspect first (for example, did it get deleted somehow?)

Beyond this, please review the configuration options laid out in README.DOC in the C:\VISION folder.

------------------
Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>