HPGL compliance

Hi, i'm a newbie driver developer and i was wondering, does the msplot driver need to be used with an HPGL compliant plotter? If yes, how can i make a self made plotter hpgl compliant? How do i integrate specialized functions on the msplot sample, that i need on my plotter? If not, is there another generic plotter driver that i could easily modify that could suit my needs? Can Paul Yao's Universal printer driver be used?

ScottRobins
Mon May 03 06:46:02 CDT 2004

> ----- francis wrote: ----
>> Hi, i'm a newbie driver developer and i was wondering, does the msplot driver need to >be used with an HPGL compliant plotter?

Technically, no, but if you want the output to look anything like it's supposed to, the answer is yes (sending HP-GL to a printer that doesn't understand it usually doesn't result in a useful piece of paper)

> If yes, how can i make a self made plotter hpgl compliant?

You include code somewhere in your printer that understands HP-GL and maps it to printer commands which draw on the paper something that looks like what the HP-GL command is supposed to look like

>How do i integrate specialized functions on the msplot sample, that i need on my plotter?

You edit the code in the msplot sample which outputs HP-GL data, and extend it to do what you want

>If not, is there another generic plotter driver that i could easily modify that could suit my needs? Can Paul Yao's Universal printer driver be used

MSPLOT is the only generix plotter driver that I know of. Many plotter devices also understand PCL, you could try a driver which outputs PCL. I guess it depends if YOUR plotter understands PCL. I don't know if it does or not, maybe you do

Scott
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Scott Robin

anonymous
Mon May 03 21:16:02 CDT 2004

thanks scott

but i have another question. Is there any other way that i could make the plotter appear in the printer options without actually creating a driver? what i mean is i would like for it to be available as a printer but i would not go through the other processes that other plotter drivers go through

The plotter that i'm building is a simple one, it only uses one pen, it does not draw graphics or text (it could only draw lines). and it would only support a single file format (gerber). What i'm planning to do is to make a very simple driver that would show the plotter as a printer option, then i would link it to a program of my design that would have the functions serial in and serial out as that would serve as the communication between the plotter and the pc.

ScottRobins
Tue May 04 07:16:05 CDT 2004

> but i have another question. Is there any other way that i could make the plotter appear > in the printer options without actually creating a driver?

I don't know of any way. You can certainly attach it to an LPT or COM port and have a program talk to it over one of those ports without using a driver. But the printer wouldn't "appear in the printer options" (which I guess means show up in the printers folder). And any program that isn't specifically written to know about it would not be able to use it

It might be possible using a GPC file to define a really limited printer such as you have. If so, you could use MSPLOT. I don't know, I've never made a mini driver

Scott
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Scott Robin