WAYOT: What used to go to printer I need as a text file

Pinthetic

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Nov 13, 2012, 5:41:51 PM11/13/12

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I hope someone here has the answer.

I have an old dos pc that has a program that prints a report to a
printer. I no longer have a printer that will interface with this pc.
Does anyone know of a way to have the report go to a floppy drive as a
text file instead of the printer port? Batch file maybe?

Thanks,

Mario
Pinthetic

metallik

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Nov 13, 2012, 5:53:27 PM11/13/12

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If it's a genuine DOS program that writes directly to the hardware
address/IRQ of LPT1, you're at the mercy of the program and it's
options to redirect the print job. DOS isn't UNIX so there's no easy
way to redirect the output. You could look for a TSR that would
intercept the data written to 0x378 and write it to a file, but such
programs might be hard to find in this day and age.

You can try setting up Windows 95 or 98 on the PC, then use it to
capture the LPT port and send the job elsewhere...

Or go to a thrift store and buy a parallel printer :)

Craig Tiano

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Nov 13, 2012, 11:07:54 PM11/13/12

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If your program wrote to the standard output device (i.e., the
screen), you could redirect that pretty easily to anywhere.

But, generally, you can't do what you're asking if the programs writes
directly to the device port itself, whether it's PRN: (standard
printer), LPT1: (specifically the first parallel port), or COM1:
(specifically the first serial port).

There's undoubtedly a way to add networking support to your legacy pc.
With networking support, you can route the prn: device to a shared
printer on the network. Or, you could move the program and data to a
newer windows pc that has a printer and run it in a command window.

The easiest and cheapest way to solve this problem is to go down to
your local thrift shop and buy a parallel printer.

Craig

viperrwk

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Nov 14, 2012, 1:32:14 AM11/14/12

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Try PC Mags prn2file:

http://www.resoo.org/docs/dos/free_software/print.htm#ptf

A good old TSR - we used it a lot back in the day.

viperrwk

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John Robertson

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Nov 14, 2012, 2:24:45 AM11/14/12

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viperrwk wrote:
> Try PC Mags prn2file:
>
> http://www.resoo.org/docs/dos/free_software/print.htm#ptf
>
> A good old TSR - we used it a lot back in the day.
>
> viperrwk
>
>

Pity that web site (last updated in 2005) had most of its files on
geocities - so PRN2FILE isn't available through them (unless you are
familiar with archive.org). however dropping "PRN2FILE" in google
quickly finds more copies...

John :-#)#

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viperrwk

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Nov 14, 2012, 7:58:49 AM11/14/12

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Ugh - sorry about that. Couldn't check the link from my iPod when I
posted that message.

Also should mention that prn2file may not work depending upon a number
of factors including the memory usage of the application and how the app
uses the printer port. Nonetheless its still worth a try.

Another alternative is to run the app in a virtual machine and capture
the output from that. But that may be more than what Mario is willing to
do here.

The real pity is that the original publisher doesn't have this available
on their site. But that's a whole different discussion...