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WLPRSPL V3.0
An LPR based printer spooler for Windows 3.1
September 24, 1993
Thomas Heil
Hindenburgstr. 50
41352 Korschenbroich
Germany
E-Mail: th.heil@kfa-juelich.de
This document was created with Microsoft Word for Windows
2.0
DISCLAIMER:
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED AS-IS. THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL
WARRANTIES, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT
LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO LIABILITY IS ASSUMED FOR
DAMAGES, DIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL, WHICH MAY RESULT FROM THE
USE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
All trademarks appearing in this document are the property
of their respective owners.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents 3
Introduction 5
Requirements: 5
Contents 5
How does the spooler work? 7
Installation 8
First Start 8
Defining Local Queues 8
Adjusting WLPRSPL Parameters 9
WLPRSPL Running ... 10
WLPRSPL Menu Options 11
Usage Notes 12
Licensing and Registration 14
Registration Fee 14
Change Log 14
One final word ... 15
Registration Form 17
Introduction
WLPRSPL is a program which allows transparent printing from
Microsoft Windows 3.1 applications to printers which are
reachable over a TCP/IP network using the LPD Protocol
(RFC1179). The user installs the correct printer drivers
that match the printers he wants to use, and connects them
to a local spool file in the same way he would connect a
driver to an LPTx port. When an application then prints to
such a printer the Windows Print Manager writes the printer
data to the corresponding spool file and sends WLPRSPL a
special notification (a WM_SPOOLERSTATUS message). The
spool file is then renamed by WLPRSPL, entered into its own
queueing system, and then later sent to the remote printer.
If the print job could be sent successfully the spool file
is deleted, otherwise sending is retried. After a user-
definable number of unsuccessful retries the user is
notified and the local queue is disabled. The user may then
enable this queue later when all problems are eliminated,
and all files queued up to this time will be sent.
Requirements:
Microsoft Windows 3.1 and TCP/IP networking software
for the PC that offers a WinSock 1.1 compliant
WINSOCK.DLL.
WLPR.DLL Version 1.0 or later.
WSOCKAID.DLL Version 1.0 or later. Users that run a
TCP/IP stack other than FTP Software's should note the
comment in the "Installation" section below.
Contents
This package contains the spooler (WLPRSPL.EXE) and the
supporting libraries WLPR.DLL Version 1.0 pl 0 and
WSOCKAID.DLL Version 1.0 pl 0 as well as this documentation
in form of a Word for Windows 2.0 .DOC file and a plain
ASCII version.
How does the spooler work?
Every printer used within Windows is connected to a so-
called "port." Examples are LPT1, LPT2, COM1, COM2 etc. But
also normal files can define such ports. When you enter the
line
C:\SPOOL\DRUCKER.DAT=
into the [ports] section of WIN.INI you may later connect a
printer driver to this "port." Every print job sent to this
port is written to the specified file by the Windows Print
Manager. This is what WLPRSPL relies on. WLPRSPL uses a
dedicated directory on the PCs hard disk for spooling (i.e.
C:\SPOOL). This directory has to be specified the first
time you start the program. For each network printer you
want to print to you have to chose a unique file name (i.e.
HP.PCL for a HP LaserJet in PCL mode). This file name
together with the chosen spool directory makes the port (in
this case C:\SPOOL\HP.PCL) to which an appropriate Windows
Printer Driver can be connected. The filename without path
represents the local queue.
The definitions of all local queues are kept in a queue
definition file (which I will abbreviate as QDF from now).
This is an ASCII file which might be edited using a normal
editor. But I suggest that this file be maintained only by
means of the configuration dialogs of WLPRSPL. The file
contains lines of the form
remote-queue remote-host spoolfile options
An example for such a line might be
ich01a4 ich210.ich.kfa-juelich.de HP.PCL v
Each line in this file defines one remote printer. The
individual fields of such a definition are separated by one
or more spaces and have the following meaning:
remote-queue Name of the printer queue on the remote print
server
remote-host Internet hostname or address of the remote
print server
spoolfile Unique spool file name (without path)
options Printing options
If you have selected C:\SPOOL as the spool directory, the
port C:\SPOOL\HP.PCL would be created by the example line
above when the program starts and the port does not yet
exist. Then you could connect the HP LaserJet printer
driver to this port using the control panel. When you later
print to it from any windows application, the Print Manager
writes the printer data to the file C:\SPOOL\HP.PCL.
WLPRSPL then puts the file into its own queueing system and
sends the data to the remote printer queue ich01a4 on host
ich210.ich.kfa-juelich.de.
Installation
Choose a directory where you want to install WLPRSPL and
create it. Move the archive WLPSPnn.ZIP to this directory
and unzip it with PKUNZIP WLPSPnn or any compatible
program. Move all *.DLL files to the Windows directory or
to another directory that is in your PATH, or include the
directory where you installed WLPRSPL into your PATH. Then
either create a new Program Manager group or open an
existing, and install WLPRSPL.EXE there (please refer to
your Windows documentation on how to do this). After that
you can start the program for the first time. For your
convenience you should also install the spooler in your
AUTOSTART group so that it gets launched automatically when
you start Windows.
A note about WSOCKAID.DLL: This is a network software
vendor specific DLL containing a few functions that
WINSOCK.DLL does not offer. Currently.you will not get this
DLL from your vendor. The version in this pack was written
by me explicitly for FTP Software's PC/TCP stack. The
function that WLPRSPL (or better WLPR.DLL) uses is
retrieving the user's login name. If you have FTP
Software's PC/TCP 2.1 or higher, this DLL will take the
needed information from the PCTCP.INI file (or whatever
your PCTCP environment variable is set to). If you use a
different stack, you may create the following section in
your WIN.INI in order to make this version of WSOCKAID.DLL
work:
[WSockAid]