Hi,

I have an old dbase III program and can bring up the Dos prompt, open it and
add to it but I cannot print it. Any ideas?
Please do not tell me to switch to Access.
Thanks

BertP wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have an old dbase III program and can bring up the Dos prompt, open it and
> add to it but I cannot print it. Any ideas?
> Please do not tell me to switch to Access.
> Thanks
>
>

Should be able to print to the default printer without any
problems. But the default printer has to be on the parallel
port...IOW, not an USB printer. Choose "generic" or "text"
printer. Also take note that dBase data prints to a "report".

> I have an old dbase III program and can bring up the Dos prompt, open it
> and add to it but I cannot print it. Any ideas?
> Please do not tell me to switch to Access.

Well since you don't want the best answer, did you tell Windows you wanted
to print from DOS programs when you installed the print driver?

Steve Shattuck wrote:

>>I have an old dbase III program and can bring up the Dos prompt, open it
>>and add to it but I cannot print it. Any ideas?
>>Please do not tell me to switch to Access.
>
>
> Well since you don't want the best answer, did you tell Windows you wanted
> to print from DOS programs when you installed the print driver?
>
>

I would not wish Access on anybody who has experienced the
power of relational databases and worked in D-Language. I'd
take Visual FoxPro any day over Access. It was a shame that
Microsoft bought FoxBase in order to shut it off in order to
promote its clunky Access. But MS forgot about those of us who
continued to work with FoxPro.

Visual Studio 2005 seems to have some handy database stuff included but not
having any experience with FoxPro etc I don't know how much use that would
be. Seems like they are working on something even easier to use related to
C# also. The native Access stuff is, as you say, "Clunky" IMHO.

I used Sapphire DataEase under DOS for a long time but hate their "Windows"
version as much as Access... If you only want to store "Keyboard" stuff
what's with having to pick every field with the darned mouse...

As to the printer it should be as the previous poster stated, if you chose
to use it for DOS programs it should work on LPT1:

I am not sure USB won't work but I think LPT1: definitely should.

Charlie

"Ghostrider" <-00-@fitron.142> wrote in message
news:Oefj0P5$FHA.532@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
>
> Steve Shattuck wrote:
>
>>>I have an old dbase III program and can bring up the Dos prompt, open it
>>>and add to it but I cannot print it. Any ideas?
>>>Please do not tell me to switch to Access.
>>
>>
>> Well since you don't want the best answer, did you tell Windows you
>> wanted to print from DOS programs when you installed the print driver?
>>
>>
>
> I would not wish Access on anybody who has experienced the
> power of relational databases and worked in D-Language. I'd
> take Visual FoxPro any day over Access. It was a shame that
> Microsoft bought FoxBase in order to shut it off in order to
> promote its clunky Access. But MS forgot about those of us who
> continued to work with FoxPro.

"BertP" <2picks1@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:uUVMht4$FHA.516@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
>
> I have an old dbase III program and can bring up the Dos prompt, open it
> and add to it but I cannot print it. Any ideas?
> Please do not tell me to switch to Access.
> Thanks
>

You may want to check your manual. If I recall correctly {been years since
I used dBase III}, you needed to install a special dBase DOS driver to print
from the program.

You may want to check for a viewer program that is compatible with dBase III
files {I think Quick View Plus is compatible with dBase files through
version V} and use that to print or copy to paste to a Windows word
processor. A Google search may find free viewers which would work.

Don

Charlie Tame wrote:

<snip>


> I used Sapphire DataEase under DOS for a long time but hate their "Windows"
> version as much as Access...

<snip>

Interesting...another former user of DataEase DOS based...lol. We used
that originally and heartily agree they killed it with their windows
version. Still have my wine collection catalogued in the DOS version
but haven't brought that up in ages. More fun to drink it then database it.

--
Rock
MS MVP Windows - Shell/User

"Rock" <rock@mail.nospam.net> wrote in message
news:uUUZ8xDAGHA.2092@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> Charlie Tame wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
>
>> I used Sapphire DataEase under DOS for a long time but hate their
>> "Windows" version as much as Access...
>
> <snip>
>
> Interesting...another former user of DataEase DOS based...lol. We used
> that originally and heartily agree they killed it with their windows
> version. Still have my wine collection catalogued in the DOS version but
> haven't brought that up in ages. More fun to drink it then database it.


Used to make my own, never lasted long enough to bother recording it

I found that for setting up a text based system DE was unbeatably fast and
idiot resistant (if not quite idiot proof).

I used to do a lot with transaction processing to create histories and to
try and do that with the Windows version (and Access) seems very illogical
and obscure to me Maybe the long term effects of the wine list I guess

Charlie

BertP,

> I have an old dbase III program and can bring up the Dos prompt, open it
and
> add to it but I cannot print it. Any ideas?

If the printer is connected to LPT1 and it's not a GDI (AKA Windows-only)
printer, then it should work. Otherwise you could try Printfil, which allows
character-based applications printing to Windows printers.
You can have Printfil capturing the LPT1 output, or, if you have access to
your DB3 sources:

SET DEVICE TO PRINT
SET CONSOLE OFF
SET PRINTER ON
SET PRINTER TO (cFile)
...
... @ x,y say ...
...
SET PRINTER OFF
SET CONSOLE ON
SET DEVICE TO SCREEN
SET PRINTER TO

More info and a free Printfil trial is available for download at our
website.

Kind regards,
Davide Guolo
--------------------------------------------------------------
Printfil - Windows Printing System for Applications
http://www.printfil.com
Odbc4All - Connection to ODBC Data Sources for any Application
http://www.guolo.com/odbc4all
--------------------------------------------------------------

Charlie Tame wrote:

> "Rock" <rock@mail.nospam.net> wrote in message
> news:uUUZ8xDAGHA.2092@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>
>>Charlie Tame wrote:
>>
>><snip>
>>
>>
>>>I used Sapphire DataEase under DOS for a long time but hate their
>>>"Windows" version as much as Access...
>>
>><snip>
>>
>>Interesting...another former user of DataEase DOS based...lol. We used
>>that originally and heartily agree they killed it with their windows
>>version. Still have my wine collection catalogued in the DOS version but
>>haven't brought that up in ages. More fun to drink it then database it.
>
>
>
> Used to make my own, never lasted long enough to bother recording it
>
> I found that for setting up a text based system DE was unbeatably fast and
> idiot resistant (if not quite idiot proof).
>
> I used to do a lot with transaction processing to create histories and to
> try and do that with the Windows version (and Access) seems very illogical
> and obscure to me Maybe the long term effects of the wine list I guess
>
> Charlie

Reports were ugly in Dataease DOS, though.


--
Rock
MS MVP Windows - Shell/User