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Hi Peter,
I've not thought it through, but in w10 there is inbuilt print server/management software. That should take care of the driver side of things. Depending on the workload, maybe print your printouts to files, specifically named for where they are meant to be printed, say, and then you could have a background task polling that directory, and sending the file to the appropriate printer.

If only a few users, then train them to print on the correct printer - shouldn't be difficult XD.

Somehow, you have to pass the destination with the file, so you could design a naming structure, and everyone prints to pdf, and your program redirects it to the appropriate printer.

Bumblebee, I remember your pain. When I was trying to get into ood/oop, about 25 years ago, I struggled for a year or so. I had a couple of great mentors from IBM - who were supplying me with Smalltalk, and OS2. One of them said to me that I would have to unplug my bran, and plug it in sideways. I think I managed the first part.

It's conversations like this, Paul that make me wish I had taken the C path when it was offered to me decades ago. Instead, I took the quick (easy) route and got stuck into VB. A bit late in life for me to learn C++ and make anything of it. Perhaps the FB folks can ignore the fist-waving and "make the language much more like C".
Let me also wish you Good Luck on your wonderful journey!

Hi Peter - I wish that I could help you with this but I have no experience in this area.

Hi all

Had anyone here dabbed into printer drivers?
There are a few commercial tools that can do what i need, but buying it is not going to happen in my organisation.
Basically, i need a Virtual Printer Interface that doesn't physically print documents, but channel print jobs to different printers.

In other words you have installed printers, pdf printers etc on e.g. a few computers on a network.
This tool then receives the print jobs as the default printer, but given the task name routes the job to a specific printer or send a copy to a pdf printer or do some other functions like save a copy of certain reports. (Like split large jobs between multiple printers)

I was wondering how you create something like that? It has to "register" in Windows as a printer driver, but then somehow be able to pass this job to another printer. I need something simple that can monitor my system's end of day report and make me a copy in pdf on a shared drive.
It will resolve a great need if one can do that.

-Regards, Peter

I ask about OOP while remembering the transition from VB6 to VB.NET
Excitement, followed by displeasure. There was an emphasis I disliked, nor understood, and it involved object classes.

Joke: If God were an object oriented programmer, it explains why He created the Universe. We just have to figure out the trivial task He created it for.

Thanks Joerg, I appreciate you taking the time to post a comment on this topic. I am happy using FreeBasic because it gets the job done for the programs that I've written. There are things that I wish that were different but the project is so old now that it is entrenched in it's own legacy problems. For example, it remains way too focuses on maintaining backward compatibility with QuickBasic. There is an outdated graphics engine embedded in the runtime that is not easily uncoupled. There are a wealth of programmers on the FB forum that would never hear tell of leaving the old technologies and QB concepts behind. There are a few people who would like to make the current version "FreeBasic Classic" and then strip out all the old stuff and just advance the project with newer programming design concepts. Sadly, there are so few people that understand the inner workings of the compiler that I doubt development progress is very slow. There is so much potential there but once you slap the BASIC moniker on something then it just doesn't get the attention it deserves. There are many things like more powerful string handling functions (like PowerBasic's) that should be part of the core runtime. Also, standardized runtime code for more advanced structures like vectors and hash maps. Things that would make the language easier to use for newcomers. However, because much of that stuff is not part of the "BASIC standard", whatever the hell that means, then all you get are forum members fist waiving saying that "you're making the language too much C". That's incredibly sad and disappointing.

Lol, the more I look at C#, WinForms and WPF tonight, the more I remember why I didn't like it in the first place. I'd be better off simply modifying WinFBE to output C++ code. Maybe after a good sleep I'll think that .NET is better than my opinion of it right now.

YES! YES! YES!

James

I love your enthusiasm :-)

fwiw, I liked c#, and visual studio. But, over time, Microsoft made it more complicated to distribute code. I looked around for something simpler to use, and was pointed to firefly and free basic. For me, it worked, but I did not like the calls to to the windows api, that stuff being built into C#. Your wfbe is superb for what I need, and it produces compiled exes that I can simply give to folk, without needing the .net nonsense.

You raise a good point about C# distribution. I have heard the same complaints as well over years. Luckily, I have never had to deal with it myself but I hear a lot of authors having problems packaging their programs and assemblies correctly. There is probably an art and magic to it. Hopefully I'll never have to deal with it.

Is object oriented programming logical?

I think that where OOP gets a bad name is in those tutorials and lessons where everything is a class. They seem to want to create an abstraction for everything. Just because C++ does OOP doesn't mean that OOP should be used for everything. It is great knowing that should you need OOP then C++ has some of the strongest support available for any language. There are languages that force you to use OOP extensively - for example, Java and C#. There are times when procedural programming gets the job done perfectly but there are also many times when procedural with a touch of OOP makes perfect sense.