miller_h@apollo.HP.COM (Herbert Miller) (10/16/90)
I use dBASE IV with a Laserjet IIP w/2Meg. When I print large reports, dBASE gets way ahead of the printer and tries to tell me that the I have a printer error. The real problem is just that the print buffer is full. I'm getting really sick of waiting for a few pages to print, telling dBASE to retry, having it timeout, wait some more, etc. Anybody know of a way to make dBASE do real spooling? It seems to me that if WordPerfect can tell the difference between a full print buffer and a real printer error there's no excuse for dBASE not too. Thanks in advance, Herb Miller Hewlett-Packard Apollo Systems Division MS: CHD-02-CS 508/256-6600 x4220 250 Apollo Drive HP TELNET: 256-4220 Chelmsford, MA 01824 EMail: miller_h@apollo.hp.com
browns@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com (Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems) (10/18/90)
In article <4d6f1a08.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM>, miller_h@apollo.HP.COM (Herbert Miller) writes: > I use dBASE IV with a Laserjet IIP w/2Meg. When I print large reports, > dBASE gets way ahead > of the printer and tries to tell me that the I have a printer error. > The real problem is just that the print buffer > is full. I'm getting really sick of waiting for a few pages to print, > telling dBASE to retry, having it timeout, wait some more, etc. Anybody > know of a way to make dBASE do real spooling? It seems to me that if > WordPerfect can tell the difference between a full print buffer and a > real printer error there's no excuse for dBASE not too. I have this problem too, and it _is_ annoying. My solution was to use "PRN2FILE" from PC Magazine. It capture anything sent to PRN. Then I copy the file to PRN while I go for my coffee break. PC Magazine utilities are available on Compuserve: type "GO PCMAGNET". They are free but not public domain: i.e., you can legally give copies away but not sell them. As long as we're talking about dBASE IV,what a disappointment! It's significantly slower than III--even dBASE IV 1.1 which is advertised as being fast. Navigating through all of dBASE's menus is a pain, and so is programming my own menus. (In dBASE's own menus, Alt-keys access the main choices along the top of the screen. But the only way in a usser menu is to hit the arrow keys until you come to the one you want, or use lots of ON statements to capture the Alt keys. What a pain.) The ads say that they include Structured Query Language, which is true; but they don't tell you thaat you don't get the reference manual. If I had it to do over again, I'd get Foxbase. The above opinions are not attributable to any other person or company. email: browns@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A. +1 216 371 0043
fisher@sc2a.unige.ch (Markus Fischer) (10/18/90)
In article <4d6f1a08.20b6d@apollo.HP.COM>, miller_h@apollo.HP.COM (Herbert Miller) writes: > I use dBASE IV with a Laserjet IIP w/2Meg. When I print large reports, > dBASE gets way ahead > of the printer and tries to tell me that the I have a printer error. > The real problem is just that the print buffer > is full. I'm getting really sick of waiting for a few pages to print, > telling dBASE to retry, having it timeout, wait some more, etc. > [...] I had the same problem back with dBASE III (not +, mind you!). Since that time I've taken the habit of sending reports to disk, to be printed later. (I need this anyways, to print accentuated chars on the HP!) Alternatively, I load DOS' PRINT before dBASE, and do something like repo form ... to file.txt ! print file.txt Even COPY worked better than sending a report "to print". Markus Fischer, Dpt. of Anthropology, Geneva