NAME
    Printer.pm - low-level, platform independent printing (curently Linux and 
               MS Win32. UNIX should also work.)
SYNOPSIS
        use Printer;
    
        $prn = new Printer('lp');

        @available_printers = $prn->list_printers;

        $prn->use_default;

        $prn->{'printer'} = 'foo';

        $prn->print($data);

DESCRIPTION
    A low-level cross-platform interface to system 
    printers.
        This module is intended to allow perl programs to use and query
        printers on any computer system capable of running perl. The
        intention of this module is for a program to be able to use the
        printer without having to know which operating system is being
        used.

USAGE
  Open a printer handle

        $printer = new Printer('osname' => 'printer port');
        $printer = new Printer('MSWin32' => 'LPT1', 'Linux' => 'lp');

        This method takes a hash to set the printer
        name to be used for each operating system that this module is to
        be used on (the hash keys are the values of $^O or $OSNAME for
        each platform) and returns a printer handle which 
        is used by the other methods.

  Select the default printer

        $printer->use_default;

        =head3 Linux
    
        The default printer is read from the environment variables 
        $PRINTER, $LPDEST, $NPRINTER, $NGPRINTER in that order, or is set to
        "lp" if these variables are not defined. 

        =head3 Win32

        THe default printer is read from the registry (trust me, this works).

  List available printers

        %hash = $printer->list_printers.
    
        This returns a hash of arrays listing all available printers. 
        The hash keys are:

        =over 4

        =item * %hash{names} - printer names

        =item * %hash{ports} - printer ports

        =back

  Print

        $printer->print($data);

        Print a scalar value onto the print server through a pipe (like Linux)

  List queued jobs

        @jobs = $printer->list_jobs;

        =head3 Linux
    
        Each cell of the array returned is an entire line from the
        system's lpq command.

        =head3 Windows

        The array returned is empty (for compatibility).

        =head3 Warning

        This method will probably return a hash in future when I've
        figured out how to access the print queue on windows. 

BUGS
        List_jobs needs writing for win32

TESTED PLATFORMS
        This module has been tested under Linux, Windows NT4 and Windows 95.
        Testers and developers are wanted for all other platforms.

AUTHOR
    Stephen Patterson <s.patterson@freeuk.com>
TODO
        Make printer name a $OSNAME keyed hash.
        Make list_queue work on windows.