Print File

 Send a file to printer

Once builded a file contains lines to print, seems it’s easy sending that file to printer :

COPY FILE command send entire file to another file or a device :

COPY FILE <xcSourceFile> TO <xcTargetFile>|<xcDevice>

Arguments:

<xcSourceFile> is the name of the source file to COPY including the extension.

<xcTargetFile> is the name of the target file including the extension.

<xcDevice> is the name of the device where all subsequent output will be sent. You can specify a device name as a literal character string or a character expression enclosed in parentheses. Additionally, a device can be either local or network. If you COPY TO a non-existing device you create a file with the name of the device. When specifying device names, do not use a trailing colon.

Example :

COPY FILE Prnfile.txt TO LPT1

Remember that above last command doesn’t work under Windows. Almost all Clipper commands and functions are usable in Harbour. You can apply above tests with Harbour too. And the result not changed again. Because problem isn’t compiler, but hardware and OS difference. Harbour offers additional (extended) easy ways to manage printer(s) :

 WIN_PRINTEREXISTS()     (old name: PRINTEREXISTS())
 WIN_PRINTERSTATUS()     (old name: XISPRINTER())
 WIN_PRINTERPORTTONAME() (old name: PRINTERPORTTONAME())
 WIN_PRINTERLIST()       (old name: GETPRINTERS())
 WIN_PRINTERGETDEFAULT() (old name: GETDEFAULTPRINTER())
 WIN_PRINTERSETDEFAULT() (old name: SETDEFAULTPRINTER())
 WIN_PRINTFILERAW()      (old name: PRINTFILERAW())

For sending a file to printer we need only two of above function :

 WIN_PRINTERGETDEFAULT() 
 WIN_PRINTFILERAW()

If we have alredy above Prnfile.txt, sending it to printer seems easy :

 cDefaultPrinter := WIN_PRINTERGETDEFAULT() 
 WIN_PRINTFILERAW( cDefaultPrinter, Prnfile.txt )

Is that all ?

WIN_PRINTFILERAW() returns 1 if sending to printer was successful. If you test this, probably you will get 1.

May be easy like this ?

Unfortunatelly answer is “sometime” …

Although WIN_PRINTFILERAW() said “sending is successful” you may get nothing from printer.

What is meaning of “sometime” ? May be “sometime” in physic ?

In physic no, but in Windows yes !

What ?

Because some printers or some versions of Windows due to something obscure …

… doesn’t support “raw” printing 😦

And a more interesting thing :

You may send your “raw” file to printer via NotePad program of Windows :

cOutFName := "Test_Raw.txt"

cCmd := "NOTEPAD /P " + cOutFName

RUN ( cCmd)

( The “/P” parameter / switch means direct printing;  without NotePad open)

When sent this file by WIN_PRINTFILERAW() to printer noting happen, but by above (notepad) way sending is successful 😦

It seems that NOTEPAD build a “printable” document from our “raw” file and send this document to printer instead of our file.

However, NOTEPAD always add print file name to top, and page number to bottom of document; and treats our “printer control codes” as data, so printers never use them in “right”  way.

Other ways :

EXECUTE FILE "NOTEPAD.EXE" PARAMETERS cFileName

(  EXECUTE FILE   is a HMG command.

SHELLEXECUTE( 0, "print", cFileName )