🚀 go-pugleaf

John P. McGrath wrote:
> 
> Ross M. Dukeshier <dukeman@flash.net> wrote:
> 
> > I'm trying to set up a program that will store a user's default printer
> > properties including which printer to print to (printers are networked).
> >
> > I get the impression from the JDK documentation and the Java in a
> > Nutshell books that the Properties object you pass to the getPrintJob
> > method (of the Toolkit class) is supposed to be "persistent".  Unless
> > I'm missing something, Java passes parameters by value so I won't get
> > the Properties object back and I haven't found a method that will get me
> > the properties from the PrintJob object.  The only persistency I see is
> > while the program is running and after the user has selected the printer
> > information once during that session.
> >
> > The questions:
> >
> > Is there any way to find out the properties selected for a PrintJob
> > object?  Do PrintJob's have a standard set of properties?
> >
> > If not, is there any way other than serializing the PrintJob object to
> > maintain that information beyond the current program execution?
> 
> I hate to burst your bubble, but you are not going to be able to do
> any of this with the Java PrintJob class.  For starters, on Windows,
> PrintJob completely ignores the "properties".  They just plain do not
> work.  Also, PrintJob does not even provide basic information, such as
> what portion of the printed page you can print on.
> 
> With JDK 1.1.7, it has just gotten to the point where you can create
> printed output without the blowing off the JVM (1.1.6 _will_ blow it
> away).  There may be some relief with JDK 1.2, but I have heard it is
> still pretty pitiful.
> 
> --
> Regards,
> 
> John P. McGrath
> <mcgrath@enter.net>
> <jpm@nscs.fast.net>
That's not comforting by any stretch.  Just for clarification, what do
you mean by blowing off the JVM?  What does it do?  I've got a program
provided in the Java in a Nutshell examples book (~p. 177) that says it
prints on Windows platforms (even corrects some of the bad reporting
Windows does).  It has methods that appear to handle/track the margins,
lines, pages, headers, etc.  I haven't tried it yet, so I don't know if
it's a tease.  This is pretty important - could you please tell me more?

Thanks for the assistance.  Even if it ends up being a no-go, the
information is very interesting.

Ross Dukeshier