Printer for dbase 5 dos 2

[Hobosan]

Hi... Following help I got recently, may I ask another question?
What is special about the spec for a db5 dos printer, just had an old one finally give up but not having any joy installing another.
Is it a requirement for a certain 'emulation'?
If so are there any still about?

Alan
ElectricalTesting.co.uk

 

[cricket]

What type of printer - laser or ot matrix?
What operating system Win 98, Win 2000 or XP?

 

[Hobosan]

Whoops, sorry. Laser and operating system XP.... thanks

Alan

Alan
ElectricalTesting.co.uk

 

[ZoDra]

Hi Hobson!
Problem with new printers are, that new one can't interprete esc/p2 OR hppcl or any other printer "language". This new printers are "windows printers" and this drivers use PC's resources to interprete printout, which printer yust puts on paper.

I had the same problem and I found a piece of SW that resolves everything. The program is called DosPrn, you can download it from

http://www.dosprn.com.

It will allow some 100 pages, then a watermark will be printed on each page until you pay a registration which is some 10-16 $ per license. If you also download PDFPRINT (it's free) and point dosprn to print to this printer you will be able to test printout without printer and paper.

Have fun!

 

[Hobosan]

You guys are really great, thank you ZoDra I am trying this today.

Alan

Alan
ElectricalTesting.co.uk

 

[dbMark]

More and more of the newer model printers, especially the economy models designed for desktop or home use drop old DOS support. I remember back in 2000 I had a problem with HP's desktop model 5L or 6L, not sure now which it was. Anyway, it wouldn't print the last line in the print job. Never did get a fix for that one, even extra empty lines (CrLf) didn't force that last line to print, so we made a workaround in the code to send an extra line with spaces in it.

There's another problem with these older DOS programs. Besides not recognizing Windows printer drivers, they know only COM or LPT/PRN ports, and cannot see USB-connected printers. So either get a printer with the old large connector or install a utility to pick up the file and send it to the Windows printer driver.

dbMark

 

[dbMark]

Since you have dBase 5 for DOS, you may want to review some issues I described in thread290-882126. They may not be a problem in your particular environment, but it does emphasize that all program languages do have issues, that's why they have Service Pack 1, Service Pack 2, etc.

(Oh, dBase 5 never had Service Packs, did it? Doesn't mean there weren't quirks, especially with the newer Windows or server versions. Such as the ID() function, in Netware it gave you the user's logon ID, but with Windows servers it gives the computer name! There goes the security out the "Windows".)