🚀 go-pugleaf

pgpig@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Scott Preston) wrote:

>I've got two days before I leave on holiday and I desparetely need
>help, hence why I've sent this message to so many groups.

>At work I look after a 5-user Novell Network. The application (DOS) we
>use was written in 1988 and refuses to print to anything else but
>LPT1. As we have three printers this is a problem. These three
>printers are connected to the server and so using novell's DOS port
>'capture' program I have the following for each user who logs into the
>network

>capture l=1 q=LEXMARK_2391_PLUS
>capture l=2 q=LEXMARK_OPTRA_RT
>capture l=3 q=STAR_TSP400

>or at least something similar (you get the idea).

>This application is similar to dBase III in that it's a database in
>which applications can be written. So, for every program that needs to
>use another printer I have to run an external program

>i.e. exec("capture.com","l=1 q=LEXMARK_OPTRA_RT") 

>and then at the end of the program return it to the original state

>i.e. exec("capture",l=1 q=LEXMARK_2391_PLUS")

>The only problem is novell's version of capture is 166K and is just
>too large and our application refuses to load it. I got around this
>problem by finding another shareware capture program that was only
>1.5K. It works well but seems to go wrong once you change queue's.
>More specifically the auto end-cap feature (I use a timeout of 5
>seconds) doesn't seem to work after you have executed this version of
>capture more than once. The only workaround is to print another job or
>login again. This is what I have been doing for the last 3 months but
>now I'm leaving for a couple of weeks and I know that the current
>staff need the system to be idiot proof.

>Does anyone have either 

>(a). a small working version of 'capture'. i.e. < 10K
>(b). any ideas how I can get my application to print to other LPT
>ports?
>(c). the knowledge on how I can print to the novell print queues
>directly.

>Thanks,

>Simon.

Not much time for you.  There is a shareware program PRN2FILE that can
trap lpt output.  You then close it and copy the file to netware
supported print.  (I had to do this also.)  You have to be able to
execute a program or batch file internally.

Email me if you want it all.  2 days is not enough sorry.
Be glad to help but time is too short.

JR