Re: Print direct to printer without spool - Visual Basic Discussion Boards

XamIam24-May-05 3:22

24-May-05 3:22

Is it possible to open a printer directly connected to the "Lpt:" port on a Windows XP system? I have a form that must be set up exactly on an old dot-matrix printer, and then printed after filling in some values. I would like to open the printer and send ASCII characters to the device.

Is this possible???

Thanks

XamIam
max@maxpcsupport.com

Re: Print direct to printer without spool

Dave Kreskowiak24-May-05 4:19

Dave Kreskowiak

24-May-05 4:19

A simple search of MSDN reveals: How to send raw data to a printer by using Visual Basic .NET[^]

RageInTheMachine9532
"...a pungent, ghastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Gnome

Re: Print direct to printer without spool

XamIam24-May-05 4:52

XamIam

24-May-05 4:52

Thank you Dave, but I believe that sends the raw data to the printer via the spooler. I was to open the resource exclusively, send the character to control the print to advance so they can tear off the forms, then back up the device to get ready to print the next form. So some how I want to connect to the printer with my application.

Thanks again,
--max

XamIam
max@maxpcsupport.com

Re: Print direct to printer without spool

Dave Kreskowiak24-May-05 8:12

Dave Kreskowiak

24-May-05 8:12

Cute, but you're not going to get at the hardware directly on an NT Kernel machine. Well, not without writing your own Ring 0 .DLL.

The other code that "worked under VB6," will work, but it will also go through the spooler too.

RageInTheMachine9532
"...a pungent, ghastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Gnome

Re: Print direct to printer without spool

XamIam24-May-05 11:53

XamIam

24-May-05 11:53

Thanks for your answer, Dave.

I wonder how do check writing programs work?

Anyway, thanks for your response.
--max

XamIam
max@maxpcsupport.com

Re: Print direct to printer without spool

Dave Kreskowiak24-May-05 14:42

Dave Kreskowiak

24-May-05 14:42

They don't care about the spooler. A paper form is a paper form, even if it's 8.5" x 11" and blank, it doesn't matter. I have no idea why you're worried about the spooler handling the print job. That's what it's there for! You could spool up 1,000 checks to print, and while your application is off doing something else, the spooler is cranking out checks. So what if the codes you have to send to the printer make it reverse the paper so it aligns to the top of the page, it's still part of the print job! Besides, just about all dot matrix printers have an automatic tear-off function built into the anyway. Check the documentation on the printer to see what you have to do to get it to work.

RageInTheMachine9532
"...a pungent, ghastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Gnome

Re: Print direct to printer without spool

XamIam24-May-05 19:32

XamIam

24-May-05 19:32

I don't know, but it just seemed to me that for an app that will be run on one computer only with a printer that will have a printed 3 part form that will only be used by this one app that it shouldn't be that difficult to have the program have a direct connect to the printer. But I guess not. It looks like it will be print dialog and the spooler.

It makes all the sense in the world to have the spooler managing the output from several tasks.

Anyway thanks for your comments and generous help.

Later,
--max

XamIam
max@maxpcsupport.com

Re: Print direct to printer without spool

Dave Kreskowiak25-May-05 0:52

Dave Kreskowiak

25-May-05 0:52

It's far more difficult to go around the spooler that it is to just use it. This is the NT Kernel world, where ALL hardware is abstracted. If you need to get to the hardware, you need to go through a device driver to get at it...

RageInTheMachine9532
"...a pungent, ghastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Gnome

Re: Print direct to printer without spool

Carl Mercier24-May-05 7:03

Carl Mercier

24-May-05 7:03

Not sure if it still works... and it might not be the best programming practice, so make sure to obfuscate your code well enough once compiled Smile | :)

From the GW-BASIC days (I know it worked in VB6!)

<br />
OPEN "lpt1:" FOR OUTPUT AS #1<br />
PRINT #1, "Hello World"<br />
CLOSE #1<br />

I believe that was the syntax. Don't tell anyone I told you to do this Wink | ;)

Re: Print direct to printer without spool

XamIam24-May-05 7:18

XamIam

24-May-05 7:18

Thanks, I'll give a try. Do you think it will work with XP? Now where did I put the VB6 stuff? Big Grin | :-D

later, --max

XamIam
max@maxpcsupport.com

Re: Print direct to printer without spool

Carl Mercier24-May-05 7:37

Carl Mercier

24-May-05 7:37

I would assume it will. Not sure if .NET will allow you to run such legacy code, though. It's worth a shot anyway!

working with graphics need help...

Joey Picerno24-May-05 2:56

Joey Picerno

24-May-05 2:56

IM trying to create an irregular shaped button using GraphicsPath. Here is my code, the editor is squiggly underlining "Fillmode" saying it is ambiguous, what does that mean?????????

 Imports System.Drawing.Drawing2D<br />
       Imports System.Drawing.Drawing2D.GraphicsPath<br />
       Imports System.Drawing.Drawing2D.GraphicsContainer<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
         Dim pts() As Point = { _<br />
         New Point(5, 15), _<br />
         New Point(35, 15), _<br />
         New Point(35, 5), _<br />
         New Point(55, 25), _<br />
         New Point(35, 45), _<br />
         New Point(35, 35), _<br />
         New Point(5, 35) _<br />
     }<br />
        ' Make the GraphicsPath.<br />
        Dim polygon_path As New GraphicsPath(FillMode.Winding)<br />
        polygon_path.AddPolygon(pts)<br />
        '<br />
        '   Convert the GraphicsPath into a Region.<br />
        Dim polygon_region = New Region(polygon_path)<br />
<br />
        ' Constrain the button to the region.<br />
        Button1.Region = polygon_region<br />
<br />
        ' Make the button fit the region.<br />
        Button1.SetBounds(Button1.Location.X, _<br />
            Button1.Location.Y, pts(3).X + 5, pts(4).Y + 5)<br />
<br />
    End Sub

Re: working with graphics need help...

Dave Kreskowiak24-May-05 4:16

Dave Kreskowiak

24-May-05 4:16

Two things.

First, you don't need the two bottom "Includes" at the top of your code. You only need Imports System.Drawing.Drawing2D.

Second, FillMode is considered ambiguous because you have at least two namespaces and/or classes that are defining a FillMode enumeration and the compiler can't tell which one your trying to use. (Do you have a reference to DirectX you haven't shown us? DirectX also defines a FillMode enumeration!) The easy way around this problem is to explicitly specifiy which FillMode you want to use. In your case, the one defined in Drawing2D:

Imports System.Drawing.Drawing2D
 
    Dim pts() As Point = { _
        New Point(5, 15), _
        New Point(35, 15), _
        New Point(35, 5), _
        New Point(55, 25), _
        New Point(35, 45), _
        New Point(35, 35), _
        New Point(5, 35) _
    }
 
    ' Make the GraphicsPath.
    Dim polygon_path As New GraphicsPath(Drawing2D.FillMode.Winding)
    polygon_path.AddPolygon(pts)
 
    ' Convert the GraphicsPath into a Region.
    Dim polygon_region = New Region(polygon_path)
 
    ' Constrain the button to the region.
    Button1.Region = polygon_region
 
    ' Make the button fit the region.
    Button1.SetBounds(Button1.Location.X, _
    Button1.Location.Y, pts(3).X + 5, pts(4).Y + 5)
End Sub

RageInTheMachine9532
"...a pungent, ghastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Gnome

Re: working with graphics need help...

Joey Picerno24-May-05 5:01

Joey Picerno

24-May-05 5:01

thank you very much sir, i will sing at your wedding.

Re: working with graphics need help...

Dave Kreskowiak24-May-05 8:09

Dave Kreskowiak

24-May-05 8:09

No thanks. We already have a DJ lined up.
Mike Staff Productions[^]

RageInTheMachine9532
"...a pungent, ghastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Gnome

Data Grid

rajan_arora3123-May-05 23:24

rajan_arora31

23-May-05 23:24

how to add a checkbox on datagrid by coding so that on checking the check box the particular row get selected and the data in that row can be retrieved from SQL.Please give me the code

Rajan

Re: Data Grid

rudy.net25-May-05 3:43

rudy.net

25-May-05 3:43

Am I understanding your question right? You want a datagrid with nothing in it but checkboxes and when a checkbox is checked then you want to populate only that row?
That's kind of weird. I don't know how you would populate just one row. Can you elaborate more?

Concatenating Numbers

macca2423-May-05 22:35

macca24

23-May-05 22:35

I want to concatenate the following into a string:

2005, /, and ID. ID is an integer which will be of value 1, 2 etc.

I want it to look like this:

2005/001
2005/002
etc.

Anyone any ideas?

Re: Concatenating Numbers

Maqsood Ahmed24-May-05 1:40

Maqsood Ahmed

24-May-05 1:40

Hello,
You can use following code for each ID....
VB.net
Private str As String = "2005/" + ID.ToString("000")
C#
string str = "2005/" + ID.ToString("000");

HTH. cheers.

Maqsood Ahmed [MCP,C#]
Kolachi Advanced Technologies
http://www.kolachi.net

Re: Concatenating Numbers

KreativeKai24-May-05 9:10

KreativeKai

24-May-05 9:10

You can also use CStr(ID)

CompleteID = strYear & "/" & CStr(ID)

Smile | :)

Lost in the vast sea of .NET

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Data Environment and Command

Anonymous23-May-05 22:27

Anonymous

23-May-05 22:27

Hi
I am trying to create a command in a data environment that would be an SQL with input parameter/s.

I want to give the parameter a value entered by the user in a form.
How do we give the parameter this value?

- Lostris

Re: Data Environment and Command

Colin Angus Mackay23-May-05 23:06

Colin Angus Mackay

23-May-05 23:06

You have a SqlCommand object which contains a Parameters collection. You can use code like this:

myCmd.Parameters.Add("@ParameterName", someValue)

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How to set cell text color in datagrid?

Member 193588023-May-05 21:11

Member 1935880

23-May-05 21:11

Hi, anyone know how to set a particular cell text color in datagrid for .Net Compact Framework?

Thanks in advance!

Re: How to set cell text color in datagrid?

rudy.net25-May-05 3:50

rudy.net

25-May-05 3:50

See article http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/custom_datagridcolumnstyl.asp[^]

Strong names

hungmitec23-May-05 18:19

hungmitec

23-May-05 18:19

I have a project(can be compiled to .dll) of VB.6. I want to use the "strong names" to set: version, ProductName, Copyright...on it as in Assembly file in DotNet, but I do not know how to do it. Pls help me!
I look foward from your idea.
If you have any comments, pls send me soon my Email as below:
Hungnv@vidagis.com or Hungnv43t@yahoo.com

Thank!

Best Regards.

Hung Nguyen Viet

Rose | [Rose]

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