Ultimate Print Spooler



        I know you have probably seen MANY print spoolers in the public domain
before. But try mine for a while. I have used many before, but still feel my
version is about the fastest and most flexible. (Slightly prejudiced!) I
released it to the public domain a while back, but have made some changes and
want to release the newest version again. I have found it to work much better
with some of the existing applications and have improved the interface. The
documentation is a little cryptic! Programmers don't usually like to write
documentation very well anyways!

The program consists of 2 parts:

        SPOOL.DEV:      Device driver to be installed.

        BUFFERP.COM:    Print spooler command control.


Configuring spooler:

Install the folowing line you CONFIG.SYS file on the boot
        disk:
                device=spool.dev [/option1] [/option2]

        Where option may be the following:
                Option 1:  "/1" -"/64" Decimal digit(s) indicating
                           (k)size of memory to reserve for print
                           buffer.

                Option 2:  "/L(1,2,3)" or "/C(1,2)". Specifies which
                           port is buffered, and becomes STANDARD
                           PRN output. Only one may be specified.
                           Option "L(1,2,3)" indicates LPT1,LPT2 or
                           LPT3 respectively. Option "/C(1,2)" indicates
                           Com1 or Com2 port.

        Thus if the following line is installed:

                        device = spool.dev /l2 /60

        It means spool the PRN output to LPT2, reserve a 60K buffer.

        Options are not case sensitive! Options may be installed in
        any order. Any other characters are ignored. Default setup
        is:
                LPT1  and 1K buffer



Buffer control:

        Operating the buffer control program, "BUFFERP" is fairly
simple. Just execute it at DOS prompt. It will bring up a simple
menu. Only one command is executed at a time. Pretty self-explanatory.

Improvements:

I would like to add a couple of more features:

        1. Keystroke control for some buffer functions (such as
           print pausing or buffer clear). However the problem
           is that it may interfere with other resident programs!
           So I have avoided doing that. Will probably look into
           the problem more in the next release.

        2. Extended printer format support. Add online format control
           to elimnate all the other various little printer utils
           out there that set up printer configs (such as compressed
           print,etc). That problem would require more user customizing
           and lots more code! Maybe will do in future release.

        3. Execution of buffer commands on same command line when
           running the bufferp program. Would make life easier, when
           user is already familiar with commands. I myself prefer
           most commands to be as short as possible,avoiding menus!
           This will be implemented in next release.
           

Since I have also graciously released source code for this program you
might want to add these features yourself! And perhaps return the new
code to the public domain. If so, PLEASE credit where its due! Also
please release source code, in the true spirit of the public domain!

If you have comments about the program, feel free to contact me at the
following location:

                Craig Derouen

                Heathkit FIDO BBS
                 206-941 6943
                Federal Way,Wa


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