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I have a printer that I need to send raw data to and have it print. This printer uses special syntax to print barcodes and other items onto the paper. The printer has three ways to send data to the printer. If you were going to program something to send data to the printer, what would you use?
1. USB - Seems to be the best option but it appears that many people have problems sending data to USB ports to devices.
2. Parallel Port - Many new computers do not have serial ports so I dont think this would be the best option.
3. CAT5 - It has a ethernet jack which seems like it would be a great option but could cause problems if this printer is moved around alot trying to configure the port for it to print to.
I know that my thoughts basically say use #! (USB) but I thought I would just get other people's options.
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I would definetely use USB, it's a lot faster. You might even consider Firewire.
Brad Wick wrote: it appears that many people have problems sending data to USB ports to devices.
I'm not sure what you mean. I've never heard of people having problems with USB.
Trinity: Neo... nobody has ever done this before.
Neo: That's why it's going to work.
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It is true that a lot of programmers have problems with the security surroudding the use of USB. I experienced that especially with lab equipement and some "special" printers. This happens especially when multiple users use the same computer. Directly connected printers is also a thing of the past for corporate environements, and the IP address problem can be addressed with the use of DNS server and your DHCP server.
The answer is more in who is your target market:
For corporate environments go with Ethernet.
For home and very small SBS, go with USB. And if you use USB test,test,test,test.......
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It will be home or a company with only one computer so I think it would be best to stick with the USB. Now the next problem is that I can not find any good docs on sending data to a USB port that I can understand. Like I said before it appears many people have problems with this type of application. The application I need is so simple also...
Have a large scrolling text box that you type in what you want sent to the USB port and a submit button. Once you click submit it would send the exact data that is in the textbox to the port.
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Brad Wick wrote: 2. Parallel Port - Many new computers do not have serial ports so I dont think this would be the best option.
You're right to avoid this. Most mobos I've looked at that dropped the last rs232 port also dropped the parallel port as well. More than that, while I've seen a few high end DIY mobos that had an optional rs232 bracket to put a port in the on the back where the expansion slots are, I've not seen any mobos that do the same with the parallel port. Probably because a 25pin header takes a lot more space than a 9pin one. (The latter is the size of a USB/Firewire header on the mobo).
--
You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
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What is the best way to write an array list to a txt file so that reading from it would be straightforward.
I am using StreamWriter class and i have an array list(Alist) that contains say
1
2
3
4
5
6
Can i just do a Write(AList) or should i be doing a WriteLine because when i read the file again i mya have to to do a realine to get it all line by line to put back into an Array list.
What is the best way to do this?
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Use the writeline in the streamwriter.
Ben
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Is there some cool class or way of writing the array list in one or would i have to parse through the entire array and writeline one by one?
Same question for reading from the file to put into the array list?
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I guess if you really want the writing and reading to be quick you should think about serializing the object and saving that xml. Then you can read the xml and de-serialize it back into your object. Otherwise you are stuck with writeline and readline.
Ben
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I kinda like that idea.
What exactly do you mean by serialize?
Speed is kind an issue for me.
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Take a look at the XmlSerializer class[^].
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook www.troschuetz.de
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I really like this XML serializer concept.
Have not seen any examples for serializing an ArrayList.
Can you guide me to any?
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The MSDN topic of the XmlSerializer class contains an example.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook www.troschuetz.de
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You can use binary serialization too. It is faster but the output file is not human readable
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Are you using .net 2.0? If you are you can use a generic List of Int or of an object. Then you can use the xmlserializer to transform the generic list to an xml string. This string can be saved to a file and then read again later. The biggest issue with serialization is that if you change your object you need to make sure you handle that if you are reading an old file that doesn't have new fields etc. If you are just saving a list of numbers then you probably won't have an issue.
Ben
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If you write Write(AList) then it will be the same as Write(AList.ToString()) I don't think you need this do you? So iterate over the arraylist and write its elements in a way in which you need them 
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Thanks, i will step through each one
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Hello,
Is there a way to set the background color for a MenuItem without using p/invoke?
Thanks in advance.
Standards are great! Everybody should have one!
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Overriding the DrawItem or Paint method?
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I've tried to but that doesn't work. DrawItem and Paint never get called. Hooking up to the drawitem event from the constructor doesn't help either, since the event never seems to fire. I suspect the control gets painted by its parent container...
Standards are great! Everybody should have one!
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hi all,
I am using a windows application to create a reminder. I am using Ms Access as my backend.I need a help in a query in access.
i need to check the time values in access.For eg,i need to fetch the records which satisfy the following
select * from events where event_time=12:24 AM
Can anyone help me with a query in access(the query i tried in sql is not working for access)? The query should check for both hour and minutes
Thanks in advance
Regards
Anuradha
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Dear
First the field "event_time" must be of data type "Date/Time" (This must be set within the Access Table "events")
Then, you shoul dnote that the Date/Time data types are dealt with differently
the statement will be somthing like this
SELECT * FROM events
WHERE evet_time = #12:24 AM#
Regards
GoudaSharp
Mohamed Gouda
Developer
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hello,
I have a pci card and i have the path of the port in a string value (//.////)
in the write file func the value "hport" is in intptr;
1) I would happy if someone give an example of using in the fnction WriteFile
2) how I convert STRING TO INTPTR
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Hi,
this is an example that writes a text string to a pipe using WriteFile.
For P/Invoke you can have several prototypes with different sets of arguments;
there is no need to convert to IntPtr yourself.
BTW if you provide a string or StringBuilder it will convert Unicode to 8-bit ASCII
by default.
private void SendString(StringBuilder sb) {
IntPtr pipe2=CreateFile(pipeName, GENERIC_WRITE, 0, 0, OPEN_EXISTING, 0, 0);
Thread.Sleep(200);
int count;
bool OK=WriteFile(pipe2, sb, sb.Length, out count, 0);
if (!OK) ... report error
ClosePipe(pipe2);
}
[DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError=true)]
public static extern bool WriteFile(
IntPtr hHandle,
StringBuilder lpBuffer,
int nNumberOfBytesToWrite,
out int lpNumberOfBytesWritten,
uint lpOverlapped
);
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I Have a web service listner. Another web service calls a function , say...
Myfunc. I return success when i am done and the process starts again.
i would like to track some data when Myfunc is called that i can use for validation on subsequent calls to Myfunc. Using memory will not work because if i store some data on call 1 to Myfunc, in an array list, on the subsequent call to Myfunc, that data is gone.
What is the quickest, way to get around this?
Is it Threads? If so, can someone give me some guidance on threads in C#
Or is it simply to write to a file before i return success, then read from the file when Myfunc gets called again. In that way, i always have current data?
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