Carl,
With some alarm, I googled "winprint.exe" and did indeed find reports of malware. But the "winprint.exe" I'm using, and available for some years on sourceforge, *appears* to be a different piece of software. The sourceforge Winprint doesn't run any winprint processes until loaded, doesn't install in Windows 32, has survived any number of malawarebyte scans and (here's to hope) hasn't resulted in any apparent issues on two different machines over some weeks now. Of course, I can't independently guarantee it.
That aside, I don't believe there's any documentation. However, loading the program puts an icon in the taskbar, which is (for the most part) self-evidently configurable. You get a choice of fonts, point size, margins, lines per page, font translation (code 437), choice of installed printers, and provision for supplying the file name and directory of the file which winprint will monitor (you must print to file with this utility), and printer selection. Winprint is the fastest option available I've found; a xywrite tyf command goes instantly to the printer. By contrast, it's several seconds before vDos's dosprinter utility kicks in with a dialogue box.
As for using PCL6 for printing to a pdf file, you must have PCL16.exe (available on Edward Mendelson's site) in the vdos directory. Then all that's needed is loading a xywrite HP LJ printer file. Then just issue a standard ty command. This will not work with staggered pages (e.g., ty ,1,6,9,12), but will work with commands specifying continuous ranges (e.g., ty ,1-6 or -6 or 6-, etc.)
From: Carl Distefano
To: xywrite@xxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2015 3:04 PM
Subject: Re: new computer XY-DOS
Quoting John Paines:
> Printing to *any* windows-configured printer -- usb, parallel, pdf generator,
> fax, etc. -- is also easy with the "winprint.exe" utility program, available
> for free on the same sourceforge page as vDos.
John,
I assume that winprint.exe is safe. A quick Google search showed that
there is malware out there bearing the same name. Can you confirm that
the sourceforge download is trustworthy?
Also, can you point to any documentation for winprint.exe? I don't see
any on sourceforge.
Finally, how do you print to a PDF using an HP printer file in XyWrite?
Thanks.
--
Carl Distefano
cld@xxxxxxxx