How to print from dos program

[jenniferp]

I am my husband's tech person (he is a one man firm) and generally do fine with search engines and reading tech info...but I am stumped. He uses a fire modeling program which is a dos program. He purchased a new printer today so that he could avoid the long commute and work at home today,..and we have it hooked up via lpt1 via printer cable (yes, after I assured him that the USB cable + dos would not work) He says he can print from dos on his work printer (HP1100)..it will print dos after he hits 'reset' We have been trying various methods and CANNOT find a way to print to the printer with the dos program. The dos program does not print to file, nor does a post-script printer appear. I appreciate any insight and assistance you can give...thank you! JenniferP

 

[edfair]

Before you even get into the DOS program you need to see if the printer is "dumb" enough to print from DOS.
Reboot the system into DOS. do a dir to see what shows up on the screen, then a dir > prn or a dir > lpt1:. Either should give you hardcopy that looks like the screen shot you got.
If it won't print there, you have a windows only printer or a defective printer or a defective cable.
Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[jenniferp]

Thanks Ed! We did the test and apparently 0/3 printers are dumb in this house! The 'old' software for the Epson 600 offered promise..unfortunately we had donated the printer to GoodWill. The fire program does not allow you to intercede, you simply can answer yes or no. I was trying to find a way to print to file, then...print the file. Afterall, it is just a text doc in the end..but we could not find a successful combination to do this. We also tried using some 'print emulators' (Bob did this..so unsure of the actual process he used) So, do you have any ideas on printing to file? Is there a way to do this beyond going to purchase an older printer? I hate buying back the stuff I donated...or simply seeing the price of the ol' dot matrix printers that we gave away so freely several years ago! Thanks for any input you can offer. Jennifer, (who is now designating a garage shelf for 'outdated' equipment)

 

[edfair]

Does setup of the program allow you to specify the location?
If so, point it to a floppy, then print it from windows.
You might want to do a google search for "capture print output" and see if there is something out there that will put your data on a floppy.
If you start down the slippery slide of having obsolete stuff stored you'll need commercial shelving. And storage warehouses. I speak from experience. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[zanehall]

Dig out the old dos manuals, there was a way to pipe lpt1: to a file, you created the file first and everything sent to the lpt port ended up in the file, you then deactivated the redirection. Remember using it in old dBase apps. Was cumbersome but a batch file worked....this was several years ago during the move from dos based apps to windows.

 

[edfair]

probably mode. try help mode from the prompt.
I had forgotten. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[ChxNDmail]

Hi, I have been working on a similar problem and I wondered
why you abandoned the windows re-direction route ? Was it
because you kept getting printer port errors in place of the file dialog box ? (because that is exactly what I ran into!!!) The problem went away when I reset the printer
output to the LPT port, just long enough to reset the spool
settings and then, re-directed the printer output to FILE.
I am using Win98se. Good luck

 

[chaosinc]

just a thought.
but have you tried to just copy the file to the port?
if you have the file saved to your hard drive then it should be pretty easy to just open a dos prompt in windows.
goto the directory that the file is stored in and use the copy command. should something along the lines of:
c:\temp\copy file.txt lpt1:
as long as you have the printer port mapped it should work.
i send files directly to many different printers and print ques this way from dos prompts in nt and 98.i also use the
!copy command from foxpro in the same manner.

let me know if i helped or not, thanks

 

[george268]

I have a shareware program that captures printer output to a file and it works fine using Windows 98.
Let me know if you want a copy emailed.

 

[PWise]

mode dir>prn copy con prn 5.5" floppy pipeing lets retirn to the good old days when the user not bill gates was in control