pc emulator print to local print

[Robert Atkinson]

I agree, Reflections isn't the cheapest option, but is by far the best.

You could easily write Reflections Basic commands to change the Reflections Print Setup settings to Landscape, etc, then send the text without any escape sequences involved.

Rob.

[Robert Atkinson]

Sorry - should have said. Reflections Basic can be sent from the VMS host, e.g. :-

$!
$! ESC+"P2000;1{ calls Reflection Basic, needed for .connectionsettings syntax
$!
$ ESC[0,8]=%X1B
$ WRQ1=ESC+"P2000;0{"
$ ST = ESC+"\"
$!
$ write sys$output WRQ1+"Sub Main "
$ write sys$output " Application.ConnectionSettings = ""ExitAllowed FALSE""
$ write sys$output "End Sub"+ST
$!

[Antoniov.]

Kelly,
I can't understand how you send data to local print :-?
You can do this in various ways:
a) Sending data to emulator via escape codes to printer (I guess this is you way)
b) Using lpr/lpd protocol (this feature works bad in windows)
c) Using pwprint in pathwork32

Reading previous messages, I think you send data to emulator and than emulator sends data to the printer. Don't forget, Windows takes a full control of printer queue; it uses a legacy image called EMF while you MUST send data directly to the printer.

At last but not least, you have to configure your emulator to send data to device (usually lpt1:) not to the print manager. Even if you load text driver, Windows print manager cut every line into 80 bytes!

I summarize:
1) Check if local printer is not host based driver. Read here for "host based driver" problem http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1016266
If yes, stop it.
2) If you printer is connected via USB, stop it.
3) Install msdos driver or enable msdos printing (e.g. most of HP LaserJet have two kind of drivers).
4) Open cmd (msdos command interpreter) on PC; type
dir > lpt1:
(where lpt1 is the really printer port).
5) If direct msdos print works, configure your emulator to send data to local device

I'm using several print model on different windows version. If you post exactly the informations about your PC, printer, etc. I can help you.

Antonio
http://it.openvms.org

[Kelly Cox]

Thank you everyone for your help and suggestions. I have tried all of these suggestions except buying Reflections. I have very little control over which emulator my clients IT departments purchase. I try to convince them to make the printers IP based so VMS can send directly, but that is not the issue here. It seems like these emulators are not able to bypass the windows driver even though they have a flag for 'direct printing'.

[Antoniov.]

Kelly,
have you got Pathwork32?
Pathwork32 has a unsupportated printer server that can print from VMS to PC.

Antonio
http://it.openvms.org

[Hakan Zanderau ( Anders]

Kelly,

I took a closer look at your problem.....
It's NOT the printerdriver that causes the problem,.....it's the EMULATOR !

I tried two emulators, Pathworks PowerTerm and Hyperterm. Powerterm works like a charm, but not Hyperterm.

What do the files look like before and after the printdriver ?

My testfile looked like

[5i
&l1OThis should be printed LANDSCAPE
[4i

I stopped my local queue and typed the file in both emulators. Having a look at the files in the spooldirectory C:\windows\system32\spool\printers showed that Hyperterm stripps the -codes, but the file created by Powerterm looked like


&l1O
This should be printed LANDSCAPE

and that is why it printed OK !

Reflection is not the only solution,
PowerTerm is another.......
I consider changing emulator a workaround, not a solution.

I'll be back......

regards,

Hakan Andersson

As Antoniov mentioned, a possible solution could be to let VMS print to a shared windowsqueue.

[Hakan Zanderau ( Anders]

Kelly,

I found, downloaded and tested two more emulators ( AniTA & KoalaTerm ). Both worked with my testfile.........

regards,

Hakan Andersson

[Kelly Cox]

Thanks for everyones input. We have found 2 emulators that seem to work with THIS clients version of windows and patches. I think it really boils down to which version of windows will work well with which version of any emulator.....and it's a CRAP SHOOT. Back to REAL FUN...programming.

[Kelly Cox]

Thread closed.

[Verne Britton]

I have had very good luck using a 3rd party commerical LPD server for Windows ... WinLPR.

I am just a happy customer and not associated with that company. WinLPR is a replacement for the Microsoft LPD routines and will accept incoming LPR jobs ... I send jobs to it from VMS and Unix/Linux just fine.

It probably is overkill for your situation, but does work reliably for me; it allows you to make any number of virtual queues for incoming jobs to target, each pointing to the same or different physical Windows print queues (local or networked) and each virtual queue can have a different header prefix (for Linux output, just like a setup module in VMS).

In addition, the use of another Windows app may be a complication you wish to avoid ...

See http://www.alixoft.com for details (again, I'm just a very happy customer; $25 cost for one copy, see website for more pricing).

Also I just found an old email from 1996 where I tested and recommended to my remote users they buy SmarTerm from Persoft (now www.esker.com) for passthru remote printing from VMS (using the [5i/[4i ESC sequences) ... but it too may be expensive just like Reflections (obviously the product has evolved since 1996 :-) ).

Verne