Stream ASCII data to print

[aballant]

Hi,

I have a TCP client which sends ASCII data. If I configure the client to send the data to the port of the printer (lpd) then it will just spit it out? Correct?

cheers,
Andrew


cheers,
Andrew

 

[newmangj]

No, LPD is a protocol that requires a series of messages to be passed between the LPR (the client) and the LPD (the server) to facilitate the printing task. Just sending raw ASCII text will not achieve much at all (apart from confusing the heck out of the printer).

 

[aballant]

Hi,

Many Thanks. Is there any simple way to stream data to a printer then? Any suggestions?

cheers,
Andrew

cheers,
Andrew

 

[newmangj]

If you are talking about a LPD style printer across the network then the answer is no, you would have to interpose some form of lpr client software (either in your code or as a daemon) to handle the lpr/lpd protocols.

If you are talking to a local printer you might be able to bypass the OS spooler (depending on the OS) and talk direct to the parallel port but the printer would have to be capable of accepting plain text (ie not PCL or Postscript).

In this latter case obviously the printer would have to be dedicated to your application.

 

[aballant]

Hi,

I see what you mean. I will create my TCP server in Perl which will issue lpr requests on files,

This should be the simplest option,

Thanks,


cheers,
Andrew