Re: Printer help (again)

["J. R. Fox" jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

Michael Norman wrote:

> At 3/7/2002 10:56 AM -0800, Jordon Fox wrote:
>
> >PCL support may be a useful co-indicator, but I think there is more to it than
> >that.
>
> Jordon,
>
> Perhaps this: I've forgotten the old DOS printer command, how to print from
> the DOS prompt, but, once remembered, if one were to go to the store and,
> assuming the printer you want is hooked up to a computer, go to the DOS
> prompt and issue the command, would that be the acid test?
>

I've forgotten a fair amount of that stuff too, but this might well be one way.
I think you'd have to boot real DOS, though, as from a floppy. There was an
auxilliary command PRINT, in several DOS versions, which I think was a TSR.
A simpler, more direct way would probably be something like

TYPE TextFile.Txt > LPT1

assuming you had the file in question on your diskette, and the printer was so
cabled. This is the Redirect Output command, sending what would otherwise
go to display on screen to the first printer port instead. (As someone on the List

just pointed out, Win does not use these ports that way, so you need real DOS.
It happens that the OS/2 DOSbox is sufficiently close to the real thing. I just
tested it, going to the printer I have on LPT2, and it worked.)

I would have thought the COPY command instead of TYPE would have worked
equally well, and perhaps it does in real DOS, but I also just tested that and it
got the green "Busy" light blinking on my printer, but nothing ever came out, so I
eventually had to do a printer Reset.

Jordan