biosprint

Printer I/O using BIOS services directly.

Defined in header <bios.h>

Syntax

#include <bios.h>
int biosprint(int  cmd,  int abyte, int port);

Portability

Remarks

biosprint performs various printer functions on the printer identified by the parameter port using BIOS interrupt 0x17.

A port value of 0 corresponds to LPTl; a port value of 1 corresponds to LPT2; and so on.

The value of cmd can be one of the following:

0 Prints the character in abyte. 1 Initializes the printer port. 2 Reads the printer status.

The value of abyte can be 0 to 255.

Return value

The value returned from any of these operations is the current printer status, which is obtained by ORing these bit values together:

Bit 0 0x01 Device time out Bit 3 0x08 I/O error Bit 4 0x10 Selected Bit 5 0x20 Out of paper Bit 6 0x40 Acknowledge Bit, 7 0x80 Not busy

Example

#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <bios.h>

int main(void)
{
   #define STATUS  2    /* printer status command */
   #define PORTNUM 0    /* port number for LPTl V

   int status, abYte=0;
   printf("Please turn off your  printer. Press any key to continue\n"
   getchO;
   status = biosprint (STATUS, abyte, PORTNUM);
   if (status & 0x01)
      printf("Device time  out.\n");
   if (status & 0x08)
      printf("I/0 error. \n");
   if (status & 0x10)
      printf ("Selected.\n");
   if (status & 0x20)
      printf ("Out of paper.\n");
   if (status & 0x40)
      printf ("Acknowledge.\n");
   if (status & 0x80)
      printf ("Not busy.\n");
   return 0;

Differences from modern implementations

Nothing recorded yet.

Modern references

• Microsoft C runtime (search)

These are search links, not yet checked by hand.

Stable link: /3.1/bios.h/biosprint/ · short form /3.1/biosprint/