🚀 go-pugleaf

On Thu, 04 Mar 2004 16:31:09 +0000, Fritz Oppliger wrote:

> On Thu, 04 Mar 2004 13:44:39 GMT, Phred <ppnerkDELETETHIS@yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>> There's also a possible [expensive, commercial] solution at:
>>    http://www.dosprint.com/
>> (But they do seem to have a demo available to try.)
>>
>> <quoting from the home page>
>> Our DOSPRINT modules let you use your existing DOS programs to PRINT
>> your data on any WINDOWS supported printer! (Note: DOSPRINT/DLLPRINT
>> require the DOS application be running under a 32-bit Windows
>> operating system. And, DOSPRINT/DLLPRINT are completely compatible
>> with all WIN versions: 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP.)
>> </quoting>
> 
> Nah, I am not trying to print. I am bit-banging, controlling (trying to!)  
> homemade devices like a digital temperature sensor and digital ADC, etc.
> Thanks anyway.

You could try installing (in the Windows sense) a plain-ASCII
printer like one of the Epson MX series or the "generic Teletype-like
printer."  These DOS-era printers do their own character-to-bitmap
translation, so the Windows driver just sends bytes to the parallel port,
without the rasterization required by Winprinters. You can then send any
byte to the parallel port from a QuickBasic program with

LPRINT CHR$(Byte%);

You can concatennate multiple bytes into a string variable and LPRINT
that, but don't forget the trailing semicolon.  Without it, you'll get a
CRLF pair, CHR$(13) + CHR$(10), appended to your string.

Reading the parallel port isn't as easy, because the original printer port
only had four input lines, used for printer status information.  Later
enhanced printer ports can read eight bits at once, but these are
post-Windows improvements.  Try a Web search on "PC EPP" and "PC ECP."

If nothing else works, you can build a genuine DOS environment in its own
partition, using something like Partition Magic and FreeDos (see
www.freedos.org).