[Gambas-user] printer problem

[Rolf-Werner Eilert]

Am 04.02.2010 20:59, schrieb 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.
>

Benoit gave me the advice to print into a file and send the result to 
the device (kprinter on my system) rather than using the printing system 
of Gambas itself. So I changed everything in a way that I have my own 
dialog for the printer and you can click on "Properties" there which 
pops up the official printer dialog. My own dialog will then read out 
for example if a file is set or the file string is empty.

The program then prints all pages into one or more files and calls 
kprinter via a SHELL and with --no-dialog, if necessary file after file. 
This causes a small message to pop up for half a second, just the way my 
Thunderbird and Firefox are doing it, but there is no kprinter dialog. 
It prints directly then.

If you wanted, you could print a standard file with all pages in a 
standard sorted row and then call kprinter enabling the user to decide 
which pages to print etc. This is the way Acroread does it on my system.

CUPS has many advantages of an independent printing system, but it wants 
ready-made files to process. So you have to distinguish clearly between 
program-related and printer-related properties.

Rolf