Is it possible for an AutoIt script to listen for ouput to LPT# and redirect the output to a file?

[emendelson]

I'm trying to setup a way to print/create-PDF easily from old 16-bit applications that send output to LPT1, LPT2, or LPT3. I know there are commercial programs that capture LPT# output, but I would prefer to write something in AutoIt to do this. Can it be done? (I looked at TCPlisten, but I don't think it's even remotely relevant.)

[argumentum]

what OS are you running the 16bit program in ?

I once had to do something like that and bought a "parallel 2 NIC" hardware, that in turn, I would then receive via TCP in AutoIt, and turn those Epson escape chars into a PDF.
..many moons ago.

[Nine]

I don't know if that would help, but there is a way to redirect lpt1 to file.  Once printed in a file, you can read it from AutoIt and do whatever...

You would need to create a dummy local printer in Windows that forces all print jobs into a physical file on your disk.

- Go to Settings > Devices > Printers & Scanners (or Control Panel > Devices and Printers).
- Click Add a printer or scanner. Wait for the scan to fail, and click The printer that I want isn't listed.
- Select Add a local printer or network printer with manual settings and click Next.
- From the "Use an existing port" dropdown, select FILE: (Print to File).
- Choose a generic driver (like Generic/Text Only) and name the printer (e.g., "Virtual_LPT").
- Next, share this printer if required.
- Use the net use command to redirect LPT1 to this newly shared virtual printer:
          net use lpt1: \\localhost\Virtual_LPT /persistent:yes

When you print to LPT1, Windows will prompt you to select a file path and name to save the output.

(untested)

[Somerset]

Is the OP asking for printer output (actual printer) or for file output (file transfer)?

[emendelson]

Actually, I wasted everyone's time with this question. The 16-bit apps I was asking about only run in emulators or emulator-like software such as cracyc's msdos-player. There's no way to capture LPT1 output from these apps outside of the emulator environment. What they can do is send LPT output to a file, and a folder-watcher can process that.

So: thank you to the two forum members who asked for more information, and apologies for wasting your time with the question in the first place.

[ioa747]

https://www.bttr-software.de/freesoft/print.htm

[emendelson]

Excellent! A lot to experiment with. Thank you!