From: westes@sti.com (Will Estes)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.novell
Subject: Re: Utility To Close Spool For Just One Job?
Date: 4 Oct 92 04:48:51 GMT
Organization: Mail Group

In article <92276.173954RBYAML@rohvm1.rohmhaas.com> Aengus Lawlor <RBYAML@rohvm1.rohmhaas.com> writes:
>In article <BvHEGp.26u@sti.com>, westes@sti.com (Will Estes) says:
>>
>>Does anyone know of a netware utility that will close the print spool
>>but leave the capture command on the printer port intact for future
>>printing?  It is an incredible defect in the architecture of the current
>>capture command that I can issue multiple print commands within the
>>timeout period for the spool and have these jobs all concatenate
>>together.  This sounds more like a mainframe computer printing system
>>than a PC print spooler that was designed with naive end users in mind.
>
>The NetWare print spooler will send a job to the printer when either it has
>received no data in the last X seconds, where X is the preassigned timeout
>value, OR when the application informs it that the print job is complete.
>An application informs the spooler that the job is complete by closing the
>file it is printing to (LPTx). If an application assumes that it owns the
>printer, and therefore it decides to keep the file open, the spooler has
>to assume that the application is still thinking about the next bit of the
>job it wants to print, so it considers the job incomplete.
>
>The only defect in this architecture is that is impossible to account for
>programmers who are too ignorant or lazy to close the LPTx file when they
>are finished with it.

I think what we have here is a difference in philosophy, not a
difference over facts.

In my opinion, a program should serve the needs of the customers who use
it.  Saying that most DOS application programmers are lazy is only a
technical defense.  In fact, the failure to be able to close a spool on
demand causes customers problems precisely because so many DOS
applications are not written to close the spool.  Given that this is the
state of the world, what I need from Novell is not a set of excuses
about how application programmers are lazy.  What I need is a utility 
that compensates for their laziness.  You should also remember that in
my example I am using some command-line utility to quickly print off a
large number of files.  So it is a perfectly reasonable thing to want to
be able to close that spool if the application didn't do it for me!  

Incidentally, I got three pieces of mail from users who told me that
this problem with CAPTURE also drives them crazy, and one of them even
sent me a utility that closes the spool.  So I am apparently not the
first person to have this sentiment about CAPTURE.  If you want Novell
to hear you, you should post those replies for Novell people to read. 

Please note: I am just asking for some extra capability above what is
already there to make my life easier.  It doesn't require that the
current architecture for print spooling under Novell be abandoned, and
since it's about three days of programming and testing for a
knowledgeable programmer, it should really be a non-decision for
Novell...do it because it will benefit customers without any downside.

-- 
Will Estes		Internet: westes@netcom.com
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