west@turing.toronto.edu (Tom West) (02/12/91)
Does anyone know the approved way to do printing under MS-DOS so that you won't alienate people with print spoolers? I see three real choices with problems associated with each: (1) Int 17h Pro: Actually will tell me if the printer is okay. Lots of info to tell the user if printer not on. Con: Does this work with spoolers. How do they know that the job is done and they should start printing now. Will this work is LPT1 is re-assigned to COM1 for people with serial printers. (2) Write to STDPRN. Pro: It's already open and available. (Not much of one) Con: Again, how does the print spooler know when the job is done? Will it worked if LPT1 is reassigned. (3) Open LPT1 oneslef and write to the file. Pro: When the file is closed, the spooler should know that it's okay to start printing. You can at least check for errors when you open or close the file. Con: Apparently some spoolers expect the printer stuff to go through handle four, (stdprn). Will they be thrown for a loop by this? I would be very appreciative for any advice people care to throw my way. Thanks west@turing.toronto.edu or tomwest@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca