SCO "lp -L" and filePro (was Re: PFPRINTER)

[Bob Rasmussen]

On Fri, 24 Jun 2005, Brian K. White wrote:

> The only downside is you can't print graphics. The binary junk just doesn't
> survive the passthru mechanism.

I have no problem transmitting binary data through the 'passthru' program
and Anzio.

Note that Anzio (and other emulators) can be configured to print using
different approaches; we call this "Print Levels". If Anzio prints at
"High level", it uses the Windows printer driver. This allows use of any
font, and Anzio controls the font, the margins, the paper size, the
linespacing, etc. But if it receives escape codes, or other "binary"
data, those will be "drawn"  on the page.

If Anzio is set to "Spooler", it transparently passes received data to the
Windows spooler, which passes it transparently to the printer. This is
appropriate when the data stream contains printer control information.
(Anzio does still watch the data stream for the "printer off" sequence).

In AnzioWin, if Print Wizard is turned on, the PW will inspect the data
stream and make this determination automatically -- if it sees escape
codes, it will switch to spooler mode.

I agree that "lp -L" is not likely to work reliably, because nothing is
acting as a traffic cop between screen output and printer output. We have
avoided post-spooler solutions to passthrough printing over the years, but
have had unqualified success with other methods.

Regards,
....Bob Rasmussen,   President,   Rasmussen Software, Inc.

personal e-mail: ras at anzio.com
 company e-mail: rsi at anzio.com
          voice: (US) 503-624-0360 (9:00-6:00 Pacific Time)
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