home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
/ Simtel MSDOS 1992 September / Simtel20_Sept92.cdr / msdos / pcmag / vol4n05.arc / LPTPORT.DOC < prev   
Text File  |  1986-09-11  |  2KB  |  47 lines

  1.  
  2.           LPTPORT                                 John Dickinson
  3.           Command                        PC Magazine Vol 4, No 5
  4.         Copyright 1985 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company
  5.           _______________________________________________________
  6.  
  7.           Purpose:  Permits alternate use of two parallel
  8.                     printers (e.g., letter- and draft-quality
  9.                     units) with software that is normally limited
  10.                     to using LPT1:.
  11.  
  12.           Format:   LPTPORT
  13.  
  14.           Remarks:  Certain software, e.g., the PC-DOS Shift-
  15.                     PrtSc routine, does not recognize a command
  16.                     such as
  17.  
  18.                     A>MODE LPT1:=LPT2:
  19.  
  20.                     To use such software with two different
  21.                     printers normally requires changing physical
  22.                     connections.
  23.  
  24.                     LPTPORT.COM provides a software toggle that
  25.                     interchanges the internal DOS I/O addresses
  26.                     of LPT1: and LPT2:.  After entering the
  27.                     LPTPORT command, a second printer, connected
  28.                     to LPT2:, will receive program output
  29.                     nominally directed to LPT1:.  Entering the
  30.                     LPTPORT command a second time restores the
  31.                     original port assignments.
  32.  
  33.                     Notes:
  34.  
  35.                     1.   Certain internal print-spooling
  36.                          programs, such as those supplied with
  37.                          add-on memory board cards, read the port
  38.                          address assignments at boot-up time and
  39.                          do not thereafter look at the low-memory
  40.                          area of DOS to find them.  With such
  41.                          programs you will have to run LPTPORT
  42.                          before the print spoolers are loaded in
  43.                          order to change the effective port
  44.                          assignments.
  45.  
  46.  
  47.