pipkins@qmsseq.imagen.com (Jeff Pipkins) (04/10/90)
In article <68900003@m.cs.uiuc.edu> wright@m.cs.uiuc.edu writes: > >/* Written 4:02 pm Apr 4, 1990 by wright@m.cs.uiuc.edu */ >> I am hoping that someone can enlighten me as to the "proper" way to >> handle distributing a program that needs to control whatever >> printer the user might have.... My initial idea was to find a >> reference manual that lists printer commands for various printers >> and distribute a list of the proper codes with the program.... [...] > >Initial responses pointed to the error in my original request: >I should have said a *representative* list of *common* printers. > >-David Wright >wright@cs.uiuc.edu >wright%cs@uiucvmd.bitnet If I were you, I'd start by calling QuickSoft, Makers of PC-Write. Their ShareWare word processor comes with an installation program that has a large list of printers to choose from, and it supports various enhancement attributes for each (bold face, underline, double underline, etc.) You can buy a copy of the source code. If you want to bundle & resell, presumably you'd have to negociate, but they will negociate. Their approach seems to be fine for non-PostScript printers. Their PostScript solution is to download an emulator that interprets control codes (uuugh!). PostScript printers work by executing PostScript programs. You can't send down a plain ASCII text file to get a listing. You have to use a program that can generate a PostScript program that will generate a listing of the file you want. Addison-Wesley has three books on PostScript programming (the "red book", "blue book", and "green book".) If you contact the marketing department of major printer manufacturers, they will probably have someone there who can send you information on applications programming for their printers, many times free of charge. If you work for a well-known company, you may even be able to get them to loan you a printer for development purposes. I don't know how hard it is to do this, but if I were you, I'd try it, even I were a one-man shop. Good luck! -Jeff Pipkins pipkins@imagen.com (This is a personal response, not made on behalf of QMS.)