computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computer, computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both computer hardware, hardware and softw ...

, the print command provides single-user print spooling capability in a number of

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

s. It is roughly similar to that provided by the UNIX System V lp and BSD lpr print spooler systems.

Implementations

The command is available in the DEC

RT-11 RT-11 (Real-time 11) is a discontinued small, low-end, single-user real-time operating system for the full line of Digital Equipment Corporation PDP-11 16-bit computers. RT-11 was first implemented in 1970. It was widely used for real-time compu ...

, OS/8,"Concise Command Language" (CCL).

RSX-11 RSX-11 is a discontinued family of multi-user real-time operating systems for PDP-11 computers created by Digital Equipment Corporation. In widespread use through the late 1970s and early 1980s, RSX-11 was influential in the development of later ...

, TOPS-10, and TOPS-20 operating systems and also in DR FlexOS, DR DOS, TSL PC-MOS, Paragon Technology PTS-DOS, SISNE plus,

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

OS/2 OS/2 is a Proprietary software, proprietary computer operating system for x86 and PowerPC based personal computers. It was created and initially developed jointly by IBM and Microsoft, under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci, ...

, eComStation, ArcaOS,

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, FreeDOS, Stratus OpenVOS, AROS, HP MPE/iX, and OpenVMS. The FreeDOS version was developed by James Tabor and is licensed under the GPL.

DOS, OS/2, Windows

Background

The command was introduced in MS-DOS/ IBM PC DOS 2.0. DR DOS 6.0 includes an implementation of the command. In early versions of DOS, printing was accomplished using the copy command: the file to be printed was "copied" to the file representing the print device. Control returned to the user when the print job completed. Beginning with DOS 2.0, the print command was included to allow basic print spooling: the ability to continue to use the computer while printing occurred in the background, and the ability to create a queue of jobs to be printed.

Description

The print command allowed specifying one of many possible local printer interfaces, and could make use of networked printers using the net command. A maximum number of files and a maximum buffer size could be specified, and further command-line options allowed adding and removing files from the queue. Margins, page lengths and number of copies could also be set, as well as a parameter to adjust between favoring printing speed versus computer responsiveness.

Retrospect

Users of the initial release of the print command commented on the slow print speed and high resource usage, as well as the lack of support for the newly introduced subdirectories. The command was among the first RAM-resident programs and was the first to achieve widespread use, with many users disassembling the binary in order to determine how RAM-resident programs should be written.

References

External links

print , Microsoft DocsOpen source PRINT implementation that comes with MS-DOS v2.0
{{Windows commands External DOS commands OS/2 commands Windows commands Microcomputer software Microsoft free software Windows administration Computer printing