Printing to USB pinter

[Steve Bouffe]

I want to be able to print to a usb printer using PB DOS running under windows 2000



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[Tom Hanlin]

http://www.powerbasic.com/support/pb...read.php?t=200

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tom hanlin
powerbasic staff

[Jonathan Simpson]

Well, having frequented the old qbasic.com forum, I have come across this question more times than I care to count
Anyway, the easy way to do it under windows is to follow the following procedure.
This specific method is for windows 2000, but it should work on other versions.

First, you need to share the printer:

1. Make sure the printer is installed in the windows printer folder.(Start menu-->settingd-->printers)
2. Right click on the printer you want to use; select "sharing..."
3. Click the "Shared as:" radio button, and enter a name. I recommend a brief, one word name. "printer" is always good
4. Click the "OK" button.

You have now shared the printer. The next step is to map it to lpt1:

NT based OS:
1. Open a command prompt; type "ipconfig /all" Find the "Host Name" (in my case, Jon)
2. Type the following line. Substitute your own host name and printer share name for JON and PRINTER "NET USE LPT1: \\JON\PRINTER"

9x based OS:
1. Goto Start-->Run; type "winipcfg"
2. Find your host name by clicking the details or more info button (sorry, I forget exactly)
3. Type the following line. Substitute your own host name and printer share name for JON and PRINTER "NET USE LPT1: \\JON\PRINTER"

Jonathan Simpson

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Jonathan Simpson

[Lance Edmonds]

Unfortunately that only works on DOS-compatible printers, which are becoming the minority. There are a few that come with drivers that can "capture" print data from DOS apps, but even then some are limited to [very] plain text only.

If your DOS app is running on PC's with Windows 95 or better, then my DOSPRINT utility can solve the problem with Windows-only printers, regardless of whether they are USB, serial, networked, etc. In fact, you only need to know one set of escape codes to print to *any* printer [that has a Windows printer driver installed].



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

[Jonathan Simpson]

Thanks for the tip Lance. Yeah, printing hardware is getting more and more annoying, isn't it?
Well, I deal mostly with reciept printers and such, and most of these still work (usually) with OPEN.
As a side note, I came across an old copy of PBCC on an HDD I bought (at a yard sale ) and was very impressed.
It's an older version, but I ran it through a couple test loops (including a stock table sort) and it
is quite amazing. So... I guess my question is just how hard is it to print to windows
printers from this amazing contraption you call pbcc? I searched the forums a bit and found a few
hints but no real solid code. If I do buy it (which at this point I think I will), that is the one
thing I will really need. I'd like to move some of this code to PBCC at some point and if the old version is this
good, 3 must be even better

Thanks again.
Jonathan

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Jonathan Simpson

[Lance Edmonds]

You need to use the Windows API to do it, and I can point you to examples.

However, you'll first need to contact [email protected] to sort out the license and ensure your copy of PB/CC is legal.

Thanks!


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

[Jonathan Simpson]

I figured as much. As I understand it the origional owner passed away... I am trying to contact
the people I bought it from to get more info. My question now is if the software is no longer used by him,
is there any way I can legally get it transferred to me? From the looks of it no one else in his family appears to know much about computers, so I am doubtful that they still use it.

In any event, I am trying to talk my Boss into getting me PB/Win and PBCC anyway. PB DOS is an incredible piece of software, and while we don't do much windows stuff yet we eventually will have to.

Thanks.
Jonathan Simpson

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Jonathan Simpson

[Lance Edmonds]

Well, that doesn't help... but considering the time and effort it could take to sort it out, it is likely to work out cheaper just to purchase a new license anyway!

In any case, please do make contact with mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A> and I'm sure they will be able to help you sort it out.

Thanks!


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