printing redirection... help

Joe Aquinas

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Feb 18, 2001, 9:06:54 PM2/18/01

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Hi all,

I have a legacy DOS program which prints reports directly to a printer
(thru the parallel port) and I want to intercept the output. How do I
redirect the standard printer output to a file under DOS? Do I need a TSR,
and if so, is there one available that I can use? This seems like a pretty
basic problem to me.

Also, when I move this program from its current machine (DOS 6.x) to a
Windows ME machine, it produces an error when trying to open a file:
"Operating System Error 2" (I don't know if this refers to DOS error 2. If
anyone could point me in the right direction for information on running DOS
programs under ME which might explain such difficulties, I'd be most
appreciative.

Thx in advance,

Joe Aquinas

Igor2

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Feb 19, 2001, 7:28:05 AM2/19/01

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The answer for the first questiuon is pretty tricky. Depends on porgram
mostly. If your program prints with dos interrupts, it is easy to catch
them with a tsr and redirect. Also almost the same for BIOS. But if it is
more tricky, direct writes or soemthing, you may have a hardware that
conenct your LPT1 to your LPT2, and a tsr that saves everything coming
from lpt2. Of course, LPT2 can't be one-way port (don't laugh, i still
ahve some of them, some scanners that uses printer port doesn't work with
those old hardware). THis HW seems a bit difficuelt and maybe overkill,
but at least it MUST work :) But first try to catch dos and bios printing
interrupts with simply software interrupt redirection.

bye

Igor2
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*.hu accounts for rent (for an eggdrop)

Kevin G. Rhoads

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Feb 20, 2001, 7:17:41 PM2/20/01

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Look for LPTX on Simtel
--
Kevin G. Rhoads, Ph.D. (The Cheshire Cat for official Internet mascot.)
kgrhoads@NO_SPAM.alum.mit.edu

Nick Fagan

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Feb 20, 2001, 10:54:32 PM2/20/01

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Look for a utility called PRN2FILE.COM.

use: prn2file <filename>

Timo Salmi

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Feb 21, 2001, 6:43:06 AM2/21/01

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In article <2d%j6.15847$ef6....@news1.gvcl1.bc.home.com>,

Joe Aquinas <aqu...@pacificcoast.net> wrote:
> (thru the parallel port) and I want to intercept the output. How do I
> redirect the standard printer output to a file under DOS? Do I need a TSR,

These should keep you for awhile:

10697 Dec 16 1987 ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/pcmagutl/prn2file.zip
prn2file.zip Direct printer to a file (w asm)

14532 Feb 20 1992 ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/pcmagutl/prn2fil3.zip
prn2fil3.zip Direct printer also to a file, with sound (w asm)

14491 Nov 16 1987 ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/pcmagvol/vol6n22.zip
vol6n22.zip Contains prn2file printer to file redirection

17878 Mar 3 1987 ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/printer/prndsk.zip
prndsk.zip A Printer-To-Disk Redirector, David H. Rifkind

21491 Mar 18 1987 ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/printer/lptx.zip
lptx.zip Redirect printer output v6.0

34624 Oct 19 1987 ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/printer/lptx700.zip
lptx700.zip Redirect printer output v7.0 (not update, just different)

35913 Mar 25 1992 ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/printer/prndi802.zip
prndi802.zip Printer and port Redirection from Allen Creations

15992 Sep 4 1992 ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/printer/vprint51.zip
vprint51.zip Virtual printer utility (redirect to file), D.Whitman

All the best, Timo

--
Prof. Timo Salmi ftp & http://garbo.uwasa.fi/ archives 193.166.120.5
Department of Accounting and Business Finance ; University of Vaasa
mailto:t...@uwasa.fi <http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/> ; FIN-65101, Finland
Timo's FAQ materials at http://www.uwasa.fi/~ts/http/tsfaq.html