Re: Printing from WindowXP version of emacs

[BRUCE INGALLS <bruce.ingalls@gmail.com>]

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I had been looking for a way to script the MS Windows Printing Common Dialog
Box, to make it available for Emacs.
It looks that it requires some C(++) code, which I had been avoiding, to
make a no-arch package.
Perhaps I shall write a command-line, or otherwise Emacs usable wrapper, one
day.

Windows version 2000 and higher, are bundled with VBScript & JScript, by
default.
I had posted code to gnu.emacs.sources, in Sept. 2005, a way to retrieve the
default printer port into Emacs:

http://groups.google.com/group/gnu.emacs.sources/browse_thread/thread/a9f1a308223bc3b9/e2cf485072e3164b#e2cf485072e3164b

You can easily query all manner of Windows printer properties,
and customize the code above, to bring such into Emacs.

Htmlview & notepad make fine stop-gap measures, to make w32 emacs printing
easier.
However, I don't believe there has been a good explanation, as to why some
zealously believe
that printing must be embedded in, or dedicated to, Emacs.

Essentially, this violates the principle of coupling (and cohesion).
Say, you use Emacs to print ESS spreadsheets, or 132 column code dumps.
This makes sense to do in landscape mode.

However, you might be surprised, when your browser stops printing web pages
in portrait mode.
Next, imagine the impact of intermediate print filter programs, such as
a2ps.

That said, yet another hack is available: there already is code to export
emacs buffers to PDF.
I don't know, if a command-line pdf printing program exists.
I suspect that this will be a slow solution, that leaves garbage files
strewn about.

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