Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc:5100 comp.os.msdos.programmer:2596 Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!munnari.oz.au!comp.vuw.ac.nz!cavebbs!frank From: frank@cavebbs.gen.nz (Frank van der Hulst) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc,comp.os.msdos.programmer Subject: Re: Writing my own print spooler Message-ID: <1990Dec30.094550.11513@cavebbs.gen.nz> Date: 30 Dec 90 09:45:50 GMT References: Distribution: comp Organization: The Cave MegaBBS, Public Access Usenet, Wellington, NZ Lines: 18 In article chas@tira.uchicago.edu (Charles Blair) writes: > >I've written my own int 5h handler. What I want to do is to make it >act like a print spooler, so that I can let the application it is a >part of get on with other work while stuff is printing -- this is a >problem when I drive the printer in graphics mode. > >What's a good way to approach this problem? I've thought of installing The standard DOS print command grabs INT 8 (the timer tick interrupt) and tries to send a character to the printer (if its not busy). I suggest you try something like that. You will also run into the problem of DOS's non-reentrancy. You can't call DOS (from within your INT 5 to write to your spool file, or INT 8 to read from your spool file) while some other program (your foreground task) is calling DOS. .