Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!sdd.hp.com!ucsd!usc!apple!mips!bridge2!jarthur!nntp-server.caltech.edu!tybalt.caltech.edu!josephc
From: josephc@tybalt.caltech.edu (Joseph I. Chiu)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: HELP! MS-DOS interception of data to PRN
Keywords: printer MS DOS MS-DOS code intercept help
Message-ID: <1990May4.054639.19766@laguna.ccsf.caltech.edu>
Date: 4 May 90 05:46:39 GMT
Sender: news@laguna.ccsf.caltech.edu
Distribution: comp
Organization: California Institute of Technology
Lines: 24

Help!

I have a graphical application that sends data to the printer.  The problem
is that there are character code 0x1A in the stream of data going to the
PRN.  Unfortunately, it seems MS-DOS loves to intercept the 0x1A (which
is a control-Z, otherwise known as the end-of-file code) and refuse to send
any more data until it encounters some other character (like a carriage
return or a line) that it likes.  In the meanwhile, it drops out a few bytes
of data in between.

Does anyone have a solution to this that does NOT require the use of bios
printing services?  In particular, the program is in C, and I'd like to keep
the portability as much as possible in the source.  If I have to run a
little patch program to modify MS-DOS itself, though, I won't mind.

-Joseph

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 I wish I was somewhere else, walking down a strange new street...
 Hearing words that I have never heard before, from a girl I've yet to meet...
   - It Might As Well Be Spring (Rodgers & Hammerstein II)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 JosephC @ Romeo.Caltech.Edu   My opinions, all mine, and you can't have them!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------