This is an archive of CompuServe forum messages from 1985 to 1995, as saved in transcripts by John Foust.
Search Results (46 messages)
Mark, > Fantastic Idea! Hopefully it would also be smart enough not to change common properties that must be unique like caption, tab index, etc. for those of us dumb enough to try to change them. –dennis
Keith, Thank's for the info. As I read it, it dawned on me, there is a feature in Costas Kitsos' WinPSX font downloader that wrings this information out of a printer. Costas' will even make it list every resident font. My big problem is that my only printer is a…
Kieth, You're correct. We were discussing a .WPD for the LJIIP in PostScript mode. I just used the PCL driver suplied with windows to check the printable area for these printers as I don't have one. Hope I haven't muddied the waters too much. –dennis There is 1 Reply.
George, The discrepency with the LJIIP was more with height than width. And the problem wasn't with the PCL driver. It reported the correct values. It was the substitution of the LaserWriter IINTX driver when the IIP was using the PDP PS cartridge. The NTX driver reports the printable sizes…
Kieth, Thanks for the input! –dennis
Nelson, re: Setting printer Orientation As I indicated in my Email reply, I was only able to test this routine by running it and checking to see what settings were set in the printer setup dialog through control panel. Escape may only be changing the settings in the printer driver…
Kieth, I'm not sure I'd trust those figures too much. Do a GetDeviceCaps on your LJIIP with the standard windows PCL driver, and I think you'll find the top and bottom unprintable areas are closer to .375". –dennis There are 2 Replies.
John, There's also another very good reason to use GetDeviceCaps to determine the printable page size. If you know the actual printable page length, it's then easy to adjust your printing to any length paper. Compute the number of verticle twips on the page and subtract whatever you want for…
Keith, As to the Printer Control Panel price, I was probably extrapolating what it probably really costs through PC Connection. On the subject of HP LJIIP's, do you have a postscript .WPD for the printer, or do you set it up as a LaserWriterII NTX as recommended by Pacific Page?…
Costas, Me? Enigmatic? Must be TAPCIS. –dennis
There is 1 Reply.
Keith, In my discussion with LserTools last week, they indicated that 2.3a was the most rescent release, but you know sales types. Fonts On The Fly is a font generating program for WordPerfect. Printer Control Panel is a utility for laser printers that have both PS and LJ emulations. It…
Paul, The complete API reference including on line docs *IS* available for VB as an add on. It's just not part of the basic package. What you seem to be asking for is the windows SDK re-written just for basic. It ain't gonna happen and frankly, it's not needed. As…
John, If the unprintable border was .25" on all printers, then making that assumption would be fine. Unfortunately, that's definitely not the case. Each printer seems to be a little different. A user was having a printing problem with my app that I couldn't figure out. Finally in frustration, I…
George, > While I see the API as a definite (and indispensable) part of VB, its use is really an extension of VB, and that's just how MS handled it. There is a chapter in the Programmer's reference dealing with its use, and there is an add-on with the API…
Ted, To pass a null pointer, I find I need to use ByVal 0&. The "&" insures its a long integer and not a word integer. –dennis There is 1 Reply.
James, What happens if you move the caption and color changes to before the loop starts? –dennis
Now Costas, we *must* not pick on George about api calls like this! I've been hard enough, and he's going to think we're ganging up on him. BTW, OF_EXIST is a fantastic file existence tester. Definitely worth a mention in VBTIPS. –dennis There is 1 Reply.
Tom, WritePrivateProfileString is exactly what the doctor ordered for changing string key values and WritePrivateProfileINT for changing integer key values. Both of these calls can be used to change, add or delete lines or entire sections from an .ini file. WriteProfileString and WriteProfileINT are two more that can be used…
> George, I've been BS'd before, but this may be the best! You may not be familier enough, yet, but you're sure more than competent enough. If you can use a statement like x = function(a, b, c) in basic, you've got all the competence you need to use the…
Don, NO! Please don't change the the default to MERGE! It's enough work now to save/replace modules now in order to clean them up, and making Merge the default would only make it more drudgery. How about a simple macro of some kind to save/replace all modules prior to a…
Don, re: ExtDeviceMode The problem isn't the paramaters but the procedure itself. Take a look at the comments section for this call in the Programmer's Reference. This is not a GDI function, but a function exported from the driver itself. Thus, you need to do a GetProcAddress to get the…
George, > This may not be that difficult with windows because so much of the setup in included in the win.ini and system.ini files in very well defined formats. Additionally, windows will tell you the name and location of the main and system directory no matter what the name or…
Keith, I'm pretty sure the latest version is 2.3a. –dennis
> Was that paper punch tape or audio tape? –dennis There is 1 Reply.
Keith, What are you using with 3.0? PrintManager? I don't see any difference in the time from clicking print until everything's in the spooler. Where I see a *HUGE* difference is windows itself while the job is spooling out. Windows seems to perform just as if nothing was being spooled…
Dan, What have you started in my life!? My wife's been grinding on me for weeks to set her up a system so she could use her customer tracking program at her new shop instead of at home on my machine. So finally last night I dig out an old…
Oops, sorry if I mislead you. The problem is not reading but writing profile functions while the target ini file is also an open file in the app. If you use a Write profile function while the target ini file is open in the app, the output of the write…
Don, I'm sure the advantage with ExtDeviceMode is that you can set just about all of a printers characteristics with just a single call unlike Escape which can only change one characteristic per call. But until VB gives us the ability to deal with driver exported functions, it'll require a…
Charles, PrintCache is from LaserTools in Emoryville, CA. Among the heavy duty DTP and Postscript crowd, it is THE print spooler. It's literally just like printing a job to a file. Once it's in the spooler, there is NO, and I repeat NO, slowdown in windows! And that's using it…
> My, you're just a kid then! I've still got my first IBM in the cloest with 160k single sided drives and a 64k motherboard. Even ran across my original copy of DOS 1.0 the other day. Yeh, booting those machines was always a good excuse for a cup of…
#WriteProfileString
Message #2227
Don, I've discovered that if you use WriteProfileString while WIN.INI is also an open file in an app, a lost chain is created on the disk drive. When you look at this lost chain, it will always start with whatever data WriteProfileString was writing to win.ini. Perhaps there needs to…
Don, re: Using Escape to change printer orientation The only aspect of this that makes me a little uncomfortable is that the GetSetPrinterOrient escape is only included in the API for backward compatability and might not be supported in future win versions. You might want to include this little disclaimer…
George, My mamma always said I was a little wierd, but never to the point of calling me a "fool". I must confess that I submitted Progman to the big DEL after using LAUNCH 2.0 as my shell for a while. I just couldn't see wasting 54k of good disk…
John, > Ah, the game is always more interesting when you use real bullets! –dennis There is 1 Reply.
Rich, Take a look at the .width property for your combobox. I haven't tried it but you should be able to reset the width of the combobox to the width needed for the descriptions when it's initially selected. Then reset the width back to the original once a new selection…
Nelson (with greedy grin – $g!) File size? That too is included in the DATTIM.ZIP sample, but let me give you a hint – LOF(x). As for attributes, I have no ideas right now. –dennis
John, > Confession time – so was I. I even originally messaged George that it couldn't be done using Escape because the value of GetSetPaperOrientation wasn't in the VB API ref. Thanks to some timely encouragement from Don Funk, I finally figured it out. Another confession – I know absolutley…
#Date/Time stamp
Message #1953
For those of you wishing to get a files date/time stamp without having to resort to the kludge of shelling to DIR, I've uploaded DATTIM.ZIP into Lib1 which demostrates how to do it using the OpenFile api call. Many kudos to Costas Kitsos for figuring out how to decode the…
Don, Thanks for the hint! See my message to George Campbell. Funny thing, though. The MS Windows Programmer's Reference lists the paramater as GetSetPAPEROrient while Windows.H and the VB API reference call it GetSetPRINTEROrient. Now I know why I couldn't find it in the VB API ref. Do you know…
#Paper Orientation
Message #1944
George, OK. Here's how you can change the printer orientation from within VB: '***** in the global module Type ORIENT Orientation as Long Pad as string * 16 End Type Declare Function PrtOrient% Lib "GDI" Alias "Escape" (ByVal hDc%, ByVal nEsc%, ByVal nLen%, lpData as ORIENT, lpOut as Any) '*****…
Mike, Actually, at first glance, I like your method a lot better than mine. If an item isn't even in the list box anymore, it's sure tough to try and select it. Also seems to be simple to do. Great idea. –dennis There is 1 Reply.
Mike, About the only way to do this is with an array that indicates which elements in the list box have been selected. Fill the list box, then create the array: x = listbox.listcount dim z(x-1) as integer When an item is selected: x = listbox.listindex if z(x) then 'this…
Costas, AHA! What a team! I thought it looked like there was something there, but I was changing the reserved field to a single and never tried the 2 integers. Even if I had, I'd have never guess how to decode it anyway! How in the world did you figure…
#OpenFile API
Message #1100
Costas, A field in the OFSTRUCT data type returned by the OpenFile function is a 4 byte field named "reserved". In Petzold's book, he says this field is used with the OF_READ flag to compare a file's date/time. Does this mean that it might be possible to somehow use this…