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From: bmug@garnet.berkeley.edu (BMUG)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Phoenix Softstyle Printworks vs 4th Dimension - Help
Message-ID: <1989Nov9.150320.9521@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: 9 Nov 89 15:03:20 GMT
References: <4179@helios.ee.lbl.gov>
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In article <4179@helios.ee.lbl.gov> wbrown@beva.bev.lbl.gov (Bill Brown) writes:
>I'm trying to do an application in 4th Dimension that really does call
>for a fast dot matrix printer. (LaserWriter too expensive to buy and
>operate, ImageWriter too slow).
>
>The system is a 1Mb SE/30, 40 Mb HD, system 6.0.3.  Printer is an Epson
>EX-1000 with a Grappler serial/parallel interface running in "straight-thru"
>mode; i.e. not doing any data manipulation or conversion.
>

The printing problems are indeed probably related to the printer driver.
In addition to running output through the various printer drivers
(Imagewriter, Laserwriter, whatever 3rd party driver you've selected in
the Chooser), both 4D 1.x and 2.x (the current shipping version is 2.08)
allow a direct data feed through the serial port of your choice.  In 
general, this is MUCH faster than operating through a print driver,
and 4D 2.x does this much more elegantly than 1.x did.

Unfortunately I don't have my 2.0 docs handy just now, or I could refer
you to the chapter and verse where this is covered.  In my experience,
though, a direct serial feed often eliminates some of the problems
associated with printing to dot-matrix machines.  You do lose the
ability to have fancy fonts and such, I should add.

John Heckendorn
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