[Gambas-user] printer problem

[Charlie Reinl]

Am Donnerstag, den 04.02.2010, 09:48 +0100 schrieb Doriano Blengino:
> Charlie Reinl ha scritto:
> > Salut,
> >
> > I still haven't solved the Draw.Text tab problem, but I'v a new one (a
> > problem).
> >
> > If you open the printer-setup the first time, the 'Print to printer' is
> > chosen, and the target-file behind 'Print to file' is empty.
> >
> > If you check 'Print to file' and fill the target-file and then you
> > switch back to 'Print to printer', the target-file field is disabled.
> > (Setup Printer.png)
> >
> > Everything seems to be alright. 
> >
> > But, and there is my new problem, in my code I can't see what should be
> > done. (printing 5 times to file, makes no sense)
> >
> > Where is the magic pointer, which shows me the chosen device?
> > (Printer Properties.png)
> >   
> For what I know about printing in gambas, things are as following.
> 
> You can set by code printer.file to print to a file (a postscript is 
> generated), or set printer.name to direct the printing to an actual 
> printer. If printer.file is non-empty, the printing will go to a file. 
> The same is true if those properties are set by the interactive setup 
> panel. After that, you don't have to worry about the destination, the 
> code is the same: you draw() on the printer, and the underlying software 
> will do what is appropriate.
> 
> Other properties let you to define other printing aspects, like page 
> format, b/w or color, and so on.
> 
> The properties Copies, FromPage and ToPage are different, because they 
> don't do anything - you should read them and do things accordingly. To 
> be more precise, FromPage and ToPage are exactly so (if you read that 
> the user has set FromPage=2 and ToPage=2, then your printing routine 
> should only print the page number 2, and then terminate). "Copies" 
> sometimes works, sometimes not, so I decided to read the number of 
> copies, reset it to 1, and print several copies myself. I mean: "Copies" 
> was sometimes working, sometimes was ignored, and sometimes messed up 
> the printing. If you choose to do multiple copies by code, don't forget 
> to reset Copies to 1.
> 
> About printing several copies to a file, I see nothing strange... a 
> postscript file should be generated, containing two or more identical 
> pages. If you feed that file to a printer, multiple identical pages get 
> out. But in the first attempt, I did it differently, and I crashed into 
> rewriting the same file several times, as you are arguing. Can't 
> remember if it was my fault or gambas or qt one. I solved all together 
> by invoking multiple times the subroutine which prints a single page, 
> inside a "draw.begin()" and "draw.end()".

Salut Doriano,

letting a part the tab-Problem, the printer problem is not the existing
properties of the gambas2-printer. 
The problem is you have no information about the output device, after
printer.setup().
With a bit of luck, the target-file (printer.file) is empty, so it is
sure the device is a printer (checked "Print to file" with an empty
target-file, disables the OK-Button ).

Knowing the output device is important for "Copies", because printing
the same "output" x-times to the same file makes no sense.

So I repeat my question, where/how can I see/test the output device,
after printer.setup.

By that way, if somebody can tell me, how/where "Print first page first"
and  "Print last page first"  can be read out, and/or what is to do, for
make it working.

-- 
Amicalement
Charlie