Is there an easy way to get printer output (another opinion)?

A reader who desires to remain anonymous writes:

Generally: My understanding was that OS/2 would handle printing for me. That is to say that I wouldn't have to create separate printer drivers for every printer under the sun (or any for that matter). Since I am creating an image on the screen that is device independent (well, mostly anyway), is there an easy way to get printer output?

PM achieves a level of device independence by defining a logical output space. This logical output space is then bound to a physical output space, which creates a mapping of logical characteristics to their physical counterparts. The logical and physical output spaces are referred to as the presentation space and the device context (HPS and HDC) and are bound to one another by using either the GpiAssociate function or by specifying GPIA_ASSOC to the GpiCreatePS function.

The easiest way to accomplish what you desire is to organize your drawing code into one or more functions with a single entrypoint that accepts an HPS as a parameter. Then, when you want to draw to the screen, you can call WinGetPS/WinBeginPaint to get an HPS and call the function. When you want hardcopy, you call DevOpenDC to get an HDC and GpiCreatePS to get an HPS and call the function.

Note that to get hardcopy, you need to perform some additional setup to get things to work properly. The two most important things are that you initialize the DEVOPENSTRUC structure properly before calling DevOpenDC and that you send the following escape codes (via DevEscape) at the following times:

  hdcPrn=DevOpenDC(...);
  hpsPrn=GpiCreatePS(...);

  DevEscape(...,DEVESC_STARTDOC,...);

  if (!doDraw(hpsPrn)) {
     DevEscape(...,DEVESC_ABORTDOC,...);
  } /* endif */

  DevEscape(...,DEVESC_ENDDOC,...);

  GpiDestroyPS(hpsPrn);
  DevCloseDC(hdcPrn);

I'm not sure because I can't seem to find my copy anywhere, but I belive that the book by Graham Winn (entitled something to the effect of "Building applications using the OS/2 Presentation Manager") dedicates a chapter to the nuances of printing.

(Quoted almost directly from EDMI/2 Edition 1)
Related Information:

What are good reference books for programming in OS/2 and PM?