>George,
>
>What about this:
>
>1. RUN a DOS command from VFP which executes
>assembly INP command from LPT1 printer status port and stores
>result into a file.
>
>2. VFP programs reads a status byte from this file and determines
>if printer is ready.

>What do you think about it ?
>

I really don't know Andrus, if this would work. In 32 bit Windows, DOS is simply an application that runs under Windows. In 16 bit, Windows ran on top of DOS. So there's quite a bit of difference.

>I'm wondering why this cannot be done from Windows directly !?

If you think about encapsulating responsibilties for I/O in the OS, the same way you think about encapuslating other tasks in an application, I think the reason becomes clear. On top of that, there's at least two levels of indirection you're dealing with. The application calls the spooler which in turn calls the driver, which acutally does the work.

>Have you trieddirect port i/o from Windows, for example:
>
>http://www.nease.net/~zealsoft/down.html
> Vbio.dll for Windows 3.x/95(16K) CARDWARE
>
>Vbio.dll for Windows 3.x/95 is intended to read and write PC I/O port in
>Windows 3.x/95 application.
>There are lots of people in newsgroup requesting similar
>feature, so I decide to release Vbio.dll as the replacement of INP and OUTP. This DLL is very useful especially when you develop a hareware device and want to interface it in your Windows application. Visual Basic samples are included for 16bit and 32 bit. You can also use it in other languages, such as FoxPro/Visual FoxPro, Delphi, and so on.

No, I haven't, but I'll try to see if I can find time Monday at the office to do so.