API or utility to generate PRN files?

[wdr at TheWorld.com (William D Ricker)]

> From: Robert La Ferla <robert at laferla.net>

> I need to generate a ".prn" printer file from a Excel spreadsheet (.xls) 
> via Java or PERL.  Is there an API or utility that I can use to do this 
> either under Linux or Windows?

Under Windows, you can use the Perl Win32::* modules to activate
Excel via the COM/OLE API; I expect you could use that to script Excel
Print functions.
 http://search.cpan.org/~nwclark/perl-5.8.7/win32/ext/Win32/Win32.pm
 http://search.cpan.org/search?m=all&q=win32
 http://search.cpan.org/~jdb/libwin32-0.26/OLE/lib/Win32/OLE.pm
OLE is sadly easier to program and explore via Perl than via VBA.


Under Linux, Perl has Excel modules which will allow reading files
"natively" without Windows.  
 http://search.cpan.org/search?query=Excel&mode=all
 http://search.cpan.org/search?query=spreadsheet&mode=all
but then you'll probably have to decide what to format in your print file
yourself.


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