From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Ilya Zakharevich Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: Printing from WindowXP version of emacs Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 01:11:29 +0000 (UTC) Organization: U.C. Berkeley Math. Department. Message-ID: References: <1134660719.186074.250590@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1135041325 9473 80.91.229.2 (20 Dec 2005 01:15:25 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 01:15:25 +0000 (UTC) Bcc: ilya Original-X-From: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Dec 20 02:15:24 2005 Return-path: Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by ciao.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1EoW5G-00083l-KJ for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Tue, 20 Dec 2005 02:14:30 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1EoW68-0007NY-Hf for geh-help-gnu-emacs@m.gmane.org; Mon, 19 Dec 2005 20:15:24 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!ucberkeley!agate.berkeley.edu!ilya Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 81 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: powdermilk.math.berkeley.edu Original-X-Trace: agate.berkeley.edu 1135041089 95632 169.229.140.13 (20 Dec 2005 01:11:29 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 01:11:29 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: trn [how to get a version via %-escapes???] with a custom header X-How-To-Reach-Me: The From: address is valid X-How-To-Disable-Cc: Put in the headers the line: Mail-Copies-To: never Originator: ilya@powdermilk.math.berkeley.edu Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:136466 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-bounces+geh-help-gnu-emacs=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:32085 Archived-At: [A complimentary Cc of this posting was sent to Eli Zaretskii ], who wrote in article : > > > Set printer-name to "/pipe/printer-input" and invoke lpr-buffer. > > Will not do anything. This pipe does not accept arbitrary-ASCII input. > Are we talking about a pipe that you invented or about a pipe that > represents the MS-Windows way of talking to a remote printer? If it's > a pipe that you invented, then of course you are free to define > whatever behavior for it that suits your current pleasure in this > argument. You are right that I do not know exactly the semantic of the pipe in question (well, I said this in the preceeding message as well). > But if it's a Windows-style so called ``printer share > name'', then writing `a' to it _will_ print `a' (give or take some > command to force the printer to eject the page after printing a single > character). What is "a command" when a pipe is concerned? Do you mean FormFeed character, or what? But I still doubt very much that what you say is actually universally true. Here are some questions which force my doubts: In what encoding is this 'a' printed? Are long lines wrapped or lost? What is the page size in lines of input? Should line be terminated by CRLF, CR, or LF? My understanding of printer pipes was that they are just ways to communicate with the printer without any "format translation" software in between; and contemporary printers do not have "DOS compatibility" mode, when you can dump arbitrary ASCII text to them, and they will print in Courier. Maybe Win* stuff is organized differently, but then I would like to see an exact specification - your claim that 'a' is printed as 'a' shows that one cannot expect to print any Unicode character (given that UTF-8 is not the "Win* way"). > I will assume what happens in reality, not some silly rules of game > that you just invented. In reality, the printer expects the text sent > to it to come in some encoding. Definitely, *IF* it accepts text. > > I know very little about Win*, but AFAICS, this thread is about the > > fact that it does not. > I think you didn't understand at all what we were talking about. If > you know how to send text from an Emacs buffer to a printer at all, > then sending `a' _will_ print `a'. You again discuss "sending text". This is hardly correlates with "printing" as it stands today. > > BTW, "connection" is the communication channel between the printer and > > the computer. There is no reason to assume that one can print using > > one-sided communication (computer --> printer) only; at some moment > > the printer may send some information back to computer, and expect it > > perform some action. > > We are not talking at this level, since normal applications never > communicate to printers directly, but through some device driver or > some other piece of software. On Win* this piece of software is called "the operating system". You open GDI context (sp?), and draw to this context. > That funny pipe you invented is normally a symbolic name whose I/O > is intercepted by such an interface software and converted into > signals that run on the wire; then the issue of uni- vs > bi-directional communications is relevant. True; but you need a way to configure this interface software. At least a way to switch it to Unicode input. Hope this helps, Ilya