Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!sun-barr!newstop!sun!imagen!atari!portal!portal!cup.portal.com!plav
From: plav@cup.portal.com (Rick M Plavnicky)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga Print Spooler
Message-ID: <27763@cup.portal.com>
Date: 10 Mar 90 16:02:36 GMT
References: <11927@spudge.UUCP>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 48

From article <11927@spudge.UUCP>, in which thorp@spudge.UUCP (Don Thorp)
writes:

>Does anyone know if there is a print spooler for the Amiga?  I'm to the point
>that I'm disgusted with copying files to the PRT: device and having to kill
>the printer to stop a print job.  Before I write a print spooler, I'd like
>to know if one already exists.

Yes, there are a number of them.  As another poster wrote, you can check
the Fish disks, etc.  But the best one I've found so far is something
called Dan's Print Spooler (Daniel L. Barrans, P.O. Box 522, Seabrook,
MD 20706).  I'll let (an excerpt from) the README describe it:

Dan> This distribution contains a DOS handler, a print program, and a
Dan> control program. The DOS handler sits and waits for stuff to be sent
Dan> to it to be printed, just like you would send stuff to PRT: to be
Dan> printed. The difference is that this handler makes a temporary copy
Dan> of the stuff to be printed in a file on disk somewhere (you decide
Dan> where), prints the copy at its leisure, then deletes the copy. The
Dan> advantages to you are that you get your CLI prompt back faster, you
Dan> can continue to edit and/or delete the original file without messing
Dan> up what's being printed, and you don't need to worry about the
Dan> printer being busy when you want to start another print job. The main
Dan> disadvantage is that you need enough disk space available to hold the
Dan> temporary files until they are printed. This can theoretically be in
Dan> any filesystem in RAM, floppy, or hard disk.
Dan> 
Dan> The print program is just a simple formatted print program I wrote a
Dan> couple of years ago that I've adapted to use this handler. It can do
Dan> line numbering and page headers, and looks at the current preferences
Dan> settings to determine what it can fit on a page.
Dan> 
Dan> The control program lets you do stuff like listing the files waiting
Dan> to be printed, rearrange the order of printing, cancel print jobs,
Dan> and suspend and resume the operation of the printer.
Dan> 
Dan> The print and control programs need arp.library version 1.1 (or
Dan> later) in your Libs: directory, but the handler itself does not need
Dan> the ARP library.

Since this question seems to come up from time to time and I cannot
recall seeing it in c.b.a. I've fired it off to Tad for posting.

>Don Thorp

Rick Plavnicky
{...}!sun!cup.portal.com!plav
"I've got a bunch of bananas, and a bottle of bleach!"