[GRLUG] Text only printers

[L. V. Lammert]

On Fri, 10 Jan 2014, Justin Denick wrote:

> What's the dumb device like? If it really spits out ASCII than you're
> not going to be able to indicate any cool print commands like page
> size/source. Maybe you could indicate a new line. \n But that's not
> likely to be interpolated as anything other than \n if the printer isn't
> regarding printer commands.
>
Standard text, nothing cool needed. Page is already formatted in the text.

> How does this device interface with the current printer? Like is it a parallel port?
>
Parallel

> If preprocessing is out of the question, than post processing with an
> intelligent printer or perhaps injecting print commands into whatever is
> being logged might be you're only recourse. That's probably stretch
> since this seems to be pretty restricted.
>
It would be a lot simpler to use a text printer <g>! The dot matrix
printer has been working for 20+ years, but it's getting pretty cruddy,
and it needs replacement.

> However, if it has an interface to which you can create an ad hoc
> connection {read /dev/dumb-device | lpr -o pretty print -P "modern
> inkjet".  Better yet pipe it to a db and search don't sort when you need
> to find something from the logged data.
>
Unfortunately, that's way too complicated. The system runs in a production
environment - the request was to replace the dot matrix printer to get rid
of the fanfold paper.

	TFTR!

	Lee