DOS Utility with USB Printer

Question

I have an unsuccessful task to do the (minimal) job of servicing two legacy applications developed in DBIII + / Clipper '87.

I have full access to the source and a minimal toolchain for recompiling the application when necessary, but I am not allowed to redefine it from scratch due to various (mostly psychological) reasons from the main user.

In any case, while applications run fine under XP, hardware support becomes a daunting task. The user must replace the failed printer (an old HP parallel printer) and the 486 desktop (!) On which the applications are located.

The main problem now is to find a printer that can be used in XP, possibly via USB (for Asus EEE Box will be perfect, and it does not have a parallel port) and will make it “visible” for DOS applications.

So far I have found a workaround:

http://geekswithblogs.net/dtotzke/articles/26204.aspx

plus several utilities:

http://www.dosprn.com/ http://www.dos2usb.com/index.htm http://www.printfil.com/english.htm

The utilities seem better because they offer some sort of filter for older escape sequences (like ESC / P for Epson or the HP dialect), which makes it transparent to the printer. Or they say at least.

So, the question is: does anyone have experience interacting with older DOS programs with modern XP printers? Any reservations? Have you used one of these utilities (or another that I have not found yet), and if so, which one would you recommend?

Answer 1

Usually we do what one of your links mentions. That is, install the printer under Windows on any port that it wants to install on its own (for example, USB, etc.).

Next, share the printer (say, the workstation is called COMPUTER1, and your share is HPPRINTER).

Next, create a batch file to run the application, it should look something like this:

net use lpt1 /d net use lpt1 \\COMPUTER1\HPPRINTER <yourapp.exe> 

In your application, set the output to LPT1.

There are other, more complex solutions, but this is by far the simplest. We still have a DOS application that was built many years ago, and we are still actively selling and selling. This is how we handle printing. It works very well. You also get the added benefit of using Windows to queue your print jobs so that you can pause the queue for the printer, etc. The printer can even be turned off or out of paper, and jobs are still in the queue in the Windows Queue Manager.

Caveat: It is assumed that the output will be supported by the new printer. If this is the “older” HP LaserJet, then it’s probably PCL5, just find a PCL5 compatible device and you’ll leave.

In terms of filtering, I'm not sure why you need it. As long as the output is PCL or Postscript or some other standard, you can still find a printer that supports this print description language. If you have questions, just add a comment to the current device, and I can submit ideas for compatibility, as we deal with this daily.