#Testing Printer
4 messages in this thread
Is there a way under arexx to test whether the printer is available? I can
write to it i.e:
if open(print,'PRT:','w') then
call writeln(print,line)
Allan Baer ( Be part of the solution, not part of the problem. )
Allan,
ARexx uses normal DOS calls to talk to PRT:, so if the printer isn't ready,
DOS will put up a requestor notifying the user. If the user cancels the
requestor, the return from writeln() should indicate that no characters
were written.
-Bill Hawes
Bill,
Thanks.
It's nice to go to the source. That does not seem to hold when I change
PRT: to PAR:. Is there anyway to test or is there no reason to use PAR:?
Allan Baer ( Be part of the solution, not part of the problem. )
Allan,
PAR: is a low-level DOS interface to whatever is connected to the port. If
you refer to PAR: and nothing is listening to the port, a write to it may
just hang. PRT: provides a higher-level interface, and includes a time-out
check with a requestor to inform the user that something is wrong with the
printer.
-Bill Hawes