Printer as outputstream

[sql_lall]

Hello!
Just wondering if possible to use the printer as an outputstream (ostream) similar to files and cout.

So you can do stuff like:
Printer<<"Printing text, and the number "<<5<<endl;

(Then i guess something like Printer.close())

I have converted from VBasic ages ago, and was used to treating the printer as a file or textbox.

Also, if you can't do this, how do you access the printer?

Thanks

[crptcblade]

If memory serves, you can do something like this...

#include <fstream>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
	ofstream OUT;

	OUT.open("LPT1");

	OUT << "Printing Text" << endl;
	
	OUT.close();


	return 0;
}

[parksie]

That works fine for most Windows variants (dead easy to map LPT1: to a network drive, too).

Under Unix, you can probably get away with writing to a file then just throwing it through lpr.

[CornedBee]

Or opening the printer's device file from /dev.

Might be parn or parportn (with n being the LPT number starting with 0, par0, par1 etc.).

lpn also sounds promising.

[sql_lall]

Thanks, I'll try them and get back if there are any problems