unofficial mirror of help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>
Subject: Re: Printing from WindowXP version of emacs
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 22:21:22 +0200	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <uy82feczh.fsf@gnu.org> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <m3zmmvn7yr.fsf@coyote.llan.ll.mit.edu> (message from Peter Boettcher on Tue, 20 Dec 2005 09:45:00 -0500)

> From: Peter Boettcher <boettcher@ll.mit.edu>
> Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 09:45:00 -0500
> 
> There are many printers out there now which do not support PostScript,
> do not support PCL, and do not, in fact, even support plain text.
> They are often called "winprinters" because the windows drivers
> perform all the processing on the host CPU, and send simple rasterized
> data to the printer.

True.

> The printer itself will not even print "a" when told to.

That depends on the exact meaning of ``when told to''.  If by that you
mean (what I meant) that the character `a' is written to a port, such
as LPT1, which is captured by the OS and redirected to the printer
interface, then the printer _will_ print ``when told to''.

> On Linux, these printers are accessed via the normal lpr print spools,
> but they have filters set up to rasterize the input PS or raw text
> before outputing.

Similar things happen on MS-Windows; see this page for a more detailed
description:

  http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/Default.asp

> The question on windows is: how does one access the driver which (in
> some cases) must rasterize the input, rather than going directly to
> the device.

This is a misunderstanding, and if I somehow caused it by inaccurate
or misleading wording, I'm sorry: you do NOT ``go directly to the
device'' on MS-Windows, at least not on its modern versions.  Direct
access to devices is only possible for privileged code, one that
normally runs in the kernel address space or in a device driver.

When, on Windows, Emacs writes to a port such as PRN or to a share
name such as \\server\printer, as if they were normal files, this
creates a printer job that passes through a series of processors (see
the URL above) and only in the end is sent through the wire to the
physical device.

In other words, these names are not some door to the wire that goes to
the printer, they are special names that the OS watches and whose
traffic is captured and processed extensively before it gets to the
device.  Same as on Unix.

> Copying plain text to the network name of the printer seems not to
> do the right thing universally

But not for the reasons that the plain text somehow gets untranslated
to the printer: that is simply impossible on Windows.  There's some
other factor at work here.

  reply	other threads:[~2005-12-20 20:21 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 119+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2005-12-15 15:31 Printing from WindowXP version of emacs sbrown
2005-12-15 18:30 ` Mathias Dahl
2005-12-15 18:35 ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-16  7:50   ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-16  8:29     ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-16  8:53       ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-16 14:53         ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-16 15:31           ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-17  2:42             ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-17  8:20               ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-17  9:38                 ` Peter Dyballa
2005-12-17 11:11                   ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-17 15:50                     ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-17 16:31                       ` Peter Dyballa
2005-12-17 21:25                         ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-17 23:55                           ` Peter Dyballa
2005-12-21 18:15                             ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-21 21:51                               ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-21 22:50                                 ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-21 23:41                                   ` Edward O'Connor
2005-12-21 23:51                                     ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-17  9:51                 ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-17 13:11                   ` Lennart Borgman
     [not found]               ` <mailman.19684.1134911288.20277.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2005-12-18 18:22                 ` Ilya Zakharevich
2005-12-18 19:23                   ` Eli Zaretskii
     [not found]                   ` <mailman.19772.1134933877.20277.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2005-12-19 17:53                     ` Ilya Zakharevich
2005-12-19 21:43                       ` Eli Zaretskii
     [not found]                       ` <mailman.19861.1135028638.20277.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2005-12-20  1:11                         ` Ilya Zakharevich
2005-12-20  4:54                           ` Eli Zaretskii
     [not found]                           ` <mailman.19893.1135054520.20277.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2005-12-20 22:40                             ` Ilya Zakharevich
2005-12-21  4:42                               ` Eli Zaretskii
     [not found]                               ` <mailman.20004.1135140203.20277.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2005-12-22 23:11                                 ` Ilya Zakharevich
2005-12-23  8:41                                   ` Eli Zaretskii
     [not found]                                   ` <mailman.20241.1135327583.20277.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2005-12-30  0:38                                     ` Ilya Zakharevich
2005-12-30 11:44                                       ` Eli Zaretskii
     [not found]                                       ` <mailman.20871.1135945105.20277.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2006-01-05  6:53                                         ` Ilya Zakharevich
2006-01-05 16:39                                           ` Eli Zaretskii
     [not found]                                           ` <mailman.21485.1136479302.20277.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2006-01-07 12:02                                             ` Ilya Zakharevich
2006-01-07 12:55                                               ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-20 14:45                         ` Peter Boettcher
2005-12-20 20:21                           ` Eli Zaretskii [this message]
2005-12-20 22:22                             ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-21  4:34                               ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-21  7:49                                 ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-21 18:39                                   ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-21 19:33                                   ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-21 20:11                                     ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-21 22:15                                       ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-21 22:48                                         ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-22  4:38                                           ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-22  8:02                                             ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-22 19:37                                               ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-22 20:46                                                 ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-23  8:21                                                   ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-23 14:06                                                     ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-23 15:20                                                       ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-24 13:49                                                         ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-24 14:39                                                           ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-24 14:58                                                             ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-16  9:26       ` Peter Dyballa
2005-12-16 10:45         ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-16  9:19     ` Peter Dyballa
2005-12-16 10:46       ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-16 14:19       ` Lennart Borgman
     [not found]   ` <mailman.19545.1134911104.20277.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2005-12-19  9:58     ` Mathias Dahl
2005-12-19 21:25       ` Eli Zaretskii
     [not found]       ` <mailman.19857.1135027571.20277.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2005-12-20  7:41         ` Mathias Dahl
2005-12-20 19:58           ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-20 20:59             ` Drew Adams
2005-12-15 19:36 ` Eli Zaretskii
  -- strict thread matches above, loose matches on Subject: below --
2005-12-15 19:36 Jay Bingham
2005-12-19 11:18 LENNART BORGMAN
2005-12-19 21:29 ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-19 22:11   ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-19 23:05     ` Eli Zaretskii
2005-12-19 23:30       ` Lennart Borgman
2005-12-20  4:30         ` Eli Zaretskii
     [not found] <mailman.19804.1134991437.20277.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2005-12-19 16:28 ` Mathias Dahl
2005-12-20 10:58 LENNART BORGMAN
     [not found] <mailman.19907.1135077565.20277.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2005-12-20 17:15 ` Mathias Dahl
2006-01-03  0:49 BRUCE INGALLS
2006-01-03  5:10 ` Eli Zaretskii
2006-01-03  9:44 ` Peter Dyballa
     [not found] ` <mailman.21202.1136265134.20277.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2006-01-03 13:06   ` Chris McMahan
2006-01-03 19:18     ` Eli Zaretskii
2006-01-03 21:52       ` Lennart Borgman
     [not found]       ` <mailman.21297.1136325265.20277.help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org>
2006-01-03 22:08         ` David Kastrup
2006-01-03 22:12           ` Lennart Borgman
2006-01-03 13:08 LENNART BORGMAN
2006-01-03 19:20 ` Eli Zaretskii
2006-01-04  0:34 BRUCE INGALLS
2006-01-04 10:00 ` Peter Dyballa
2006-01-05  1:56   ` BRUCE INGALLS
2006-01-05 13:01     ` Peter Dyballa
2006-01-05 15:41       ` Lennart Borgman
2006-01-05 21:17         ` Peter Dyballa
2006-01-06  8:39           ` Eli Zaretskii
2006-01-05 20:44       ` Eli Zaretskii
2006-01-05 21:18         ` Peter Dyballa
2006-01-06  8:36           ` Eli Zaretskii
2006-01-06 11:59             ` Peter Dyballa
2006-01-06 14:07               ` Eli Zaretskii
2006-01-04  5:10 BRUCE INGALLS
2006-01-04  8:45 LENNART BORGMAN
2006-01-04 18:22 ` Eli Zaretskii
2006-01-04 19:14   ` Lennart Borgman
2006-01-05  1:17 ` BRUCE INGALLS
2006-01-05  9:24 LENNART BORGMAN
2006-01-05 16:43 ` Eli Zaretskii
2006-01-05 21:01   ` Lennart Borgman
2006-01-06  9:09     ` Eli Zaretskii
2006-01-07  5:00 BRUCE INGALLS
2006-01-07  9:18 ` Eli Zaretskii
2006-01-08  1:06 BRUCE INGALLS
2006-01-08  4:12 ` Eli Zaretskii
2006-01-09  8:29 LENNART BORGMAN
2006-01-09 11:42 ` Lennart Borgman
2006-01-10  3:13   ` BRUCE INGALLS
2006-01-10 10:19 LENNART BORGMAN

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

  List information: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=uy82feczh.fsf@gnu.org \
    --to=eliz@gnu.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for read-only IMAP folder(s) and NNTP newsgroup(s).