make usb print in cobol

I suppose you have something like

000036     SELECT IMPRESO ASSIGN TO ID-PRINT,        *>  or  "LPT1"

000037       ORGANIZATION LINE SEQUENTIAL,

000038       FILE STATUS IS ID-STAT.

The simples way is  fill ID-PRINT with a name  or replace LPT1 by  "MY-RINTING".

afterwards use NOTEPAD MY-PRINTING to see and print the file.

A better way is usind the

call "PC_PRINTER_OPEN" using          

call "PC_PRINTER_WRITE" using

there are plenty of demos.

Rolf

You can also just do an ASSIGN TO PRINTER and then redirect the output to your default system printer by using the run-time tunable printer_redirection.

Example:

1) Create file MYCONFIG.CFG containing record:

    set printer_redirection=TRUE

2) Set environment variable:

COBCONFIG_=MYCONFIG.CFG

When you open the printer output will be redirected to the default printer.

You can change the default printer within your program using the library routine PC_PRINTER_SET_DEFAULT.

Please see documention under Library routines for more details

Thanks.

Hi Chris,

New issue here with regards to USB printing. The EPSON printer includes a driver that emulates LPT1 to that port... so basically I am printing using LPT1 still and its working as well.

Now the problem arises when using "condensed" printing. My codes are as follows;

          select Receipt-printer assign to "lpt1"

                organization is line sequential

                 file status is PRT-status.

      78  15cpi-feed            value x"0F".

      78  Semi                  value ";".

          initialize Receipt-rec
          string 15cpi-feed delimited by Semi
            "My 15cpi text message" delimited by size into Receipt-rec

          write Receipt-rec

Using the code above; the printer seems to ignore the condensed printing. It is still printing in normal/regular size. Any problem here? I am using Windows 7 OS, NetExpress v3.1

Hi Chris,

New issue here with regards to USB printing. The EPSON printer includes a driver that emulates LPT1 to that port... so basically I am printing using LPT1 still and its working as well.

Now the problem arises when using "condensed" printing. My codes are as follows;

          select Receipt-printer assign to "lpt1"

                organization is line sequential

                 file status is PRT-status.

      78  15cpi-feed            value x"0F".

      78  Semi                  value ";".

          initialize Receipt-rec
          string 15cpi-feed delimited by Semi
            "My 15cpi text message" delimited by size into Receipt-rec

          write Receipt-rec

Using the code above; the printer seems to ignore the condensed printing. It is still printing in normal/regular size. Any problem here? I am using Windows 7 OS, NetExpress v3.1

Hi Chris,

Removed the COBCONFIG_ settings and it turns out the codes are ok.... now it is recognizing the ESCape code for EPSON ESC/POS.

The printer driver already redirect the USP printer to LPT1... so everything within the Cobol code stays the same.

Yes, the printer redirection options are only used when using a non-LPT1 printer that needs to be redirected to the print spooler.

When using the redirection, control characters are stripped out. In Visual COBOL we have added new functionality that allows you to use both redirection with raw data but this is not available in Net Express.