Printing problems with 4J's and Windows NT 4.0

Hello everybody. We are having printing problems with 4J's and Windows NT 4.0 At the present time we have the following hardware and software: =============================================================== -> Server: - Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 3 - 4J's Runtime 2.02.le6k3 - Informix Online Workgroup Server 7.23.TC1 -> Client: - Windows 95 4.00.950a - 4GL-Server 1.40 - Informix CLI 7.20 - Connection to the NT Server via the "Network drive" method -> Printer (shared in a Windows 95 PC): - Windows 95 4.00.950a - HP LaserJet 6P (using HP Printer drivers, shared as "\\\\servidor95\\hplj_6p") Printing possibilities: ====================== We tried 3 ways of sending reports to the printer: 1) As documented by 4J's: - Setting the DBPRINT environment variable to "FGLSERVER" and using the 4GL instruction: START REPORT report_name TO PRINTER 2) Sending directly to the shared resource: - Setting the DBPRINT environment variable to "FGLSERVER" and using the 4GL instruction: START REPORT report_name TO "\\\\\\\\servidor95\\\\hplj_6p" 3) In Windows 95 capture the LPT1 port to the shared printer (\\\\servidor95\\hplj_6p) and sending the report to LPT1 - Setting the DBPRINT environment variable to "FGLSERVER" and using the 4GL instruction: START REPORT report_name TO "LPT1" Problems found with the possibilites described above: ==================================================== Note ---- We use a lot of printer "escapes" in our reports (to change the font size, set/unset bold, set/unset double strike, set/unset underline, etc...) 1) DBPRINT=FGLSERVER, START REPORT report_name TO PRINTER With this method we can use two ways of sending the report to the printer: a) Using the HP printer driver... Problem: The driver tries to "translate" our escapes, and the report gets totaly messed up, because: - The driver does not correctly translate the printer escapes. - The driver does an extra(s) initializion(s) of the printer. - The drivers tries to position the "cursor" at the begining of each line: the result is an extra space between each line. - It doesn't print the last charactres of the line (normally only prints about half of each line). b) Using the "Generic/Text only" printer driver provided by Microsoft: Problem: The printer escape are "literaly" printed, as in the following example: - When we use the following instrucion (in a 4GL report): PRINT ASCII(27), "(s7B", # Bold on... "Testing", ASCII(27), "(s0B" # Bold off... - When gets printed is... .(s7BTesting.(s0B Instead of... Testing ... in BOLD NOTE: this happens with any combination of the Spool Settings (in the printer properties...) 2) DBPRINT=FGLSERVER, START REPORT report_name "\\\\\\\\computer\\\\shared_printer" With this method we have the following problem: - The print job is printed CORRECTLY, but when the LAST page is printed we get the famous Windows 95 blue screen with the following error message: An Exception 0E has occurred as 0028:C0FF2D1E in VxD MSTCP(01) + 000041AE. This was called from 0028:C004181C in VxD NDIS(01) + 00000D7C. It may be possible to continue normally. - The connection to the LAN is lost and the Windows 95 loses every TCP/IP service (ping, telnet, ftp, etc...). - NOTE: this situation ("blue screen" error, TCP/IP connections lost) only happend when we send a report with a LARGE number of printer escapes: - If we print invoices (lets say, about 200 printer escapes per page): - 1 invoice : OK! - 10 invoices: "blue screen" error... 3) Capture LPT1 to "\\\\computer\\shared_printer" DBPRINT=FGLSERVER, START REPORT report_name TO LPT1 With this method we have the same problems as in 2), but the user can only print to the printer over which the LPT1 port is captured. --------- SINFIC - Sistemas de Informacao Industriais e Consultoria, SA http://homepage.esoterica.pt/~sinfic Alberto Ribeiro sinfic@esoterica.pt aribeiro@sinfic.hpv.pt