>>>>>>>does anyone know how to send a binary print file to the printer?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>If you mean file created by REPORT Form ... TO File ... (w/out
>>ASCII
>>clause), then you can just use COPY FILE cFilename TO lpt1, if printer
>>is
>>on lpt1.
>>>>>
>>>>>no they're basically graphics that were printed to a file. i tried
>>it
>>with copy file to lpt1 but it tells me that there is not enough disk
>>space
>>for lpt1. i have 900megs free. the file itself is only about 180k.
>>>>
>>>>I use copy file to lpt1 for up to 500K files at it works ok, but I
>>use
>>Foxpro native files. Try dos copy command to make sure that copying is
>>not
>>an option here.
>>>
>>>from dos copy /b myfile.prn to prn works great.
>>>i can bang from vfp to do this but the dos shell isn't pretty and
>>while
>>it's printing, the rest of the system is basically locked up.
>>>i'm thinking about seeing if i can get the advertising dept to change
>>
>>formats.
>>
>>Gray,
>>
>>If there's an application capable of printing the file (such as
>>Paint),
>>then, in some cases, you can have it print the file for you using,
>>for
>>example, the following syntax:
>>
>>RUN /N7 C:\Program Files\Accessories\MSPAINT.EXE /P
>>C:\WINDOWS\Clouds.bmp
>>
>>This will cause the program to print the file and then close,
>>minimized and
>>inactive.
>>
>>HTH,
>>
>>George
>
> You can use fread(), fwrite(), fopen() (this function is for opening
>
> the printer port only for writing) functions to achieve your goal.
>It
> works just like DOS command copy /b. And you could run DOS
> commands background using Win32API ShellExecute() to prevent
> DOS window from appearing.
>
>Chris Lee

Or you could use FindExecutable to see if a file has an associated application, then ShellExecute to print it.

BTW, neither of these is technically part of what FoxPro (note this) considers to be Win32API. It's SHELL32.DLL.

GEorge