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From: wagner@utcs.uucp (Michael Wagner)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: Patch for Epson ?X-80 printers
Message-ID: <1079@utcs.uucp>
Date: Mon, 3-Feb-86 14:34:50 EST
Article-I.D.: utcs.1079
Posted: Mon Feb  3 14:34:50 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 3-Feb-86 14:56:32 EST
References: <1155@caip.RUTGERS.EDU>
Reply-To: wagner@utcs.UUCP (Michael Wagner)
Organization: University of Toronto - General Purpose UNIX
Lines: 29
Summary: 


Actually, there seem to be several bugs in the Epson drivers.  One, mentioned
here earlier and responded to by an AMIGA source, had to do with how much
to increment the carriage in bit graphics mode.  The second, which I've
not seen mentioned here, has to do with a garbage character sent to the
printer when it is first opened.  On my printer, what prints is a K.
I don't think it's my problem (although I could be wrong), since a program
I have (Textcraft I think, but don't quote me) lists inproper treatment of
Epson printers (and specifically garbage characters at open time) in a 
bug list, but refers to it as an OS bug rather than an application bug.
The third (I suppose this could be a "feature") is that there doesn't
seem to be any difference between draft and letter quality mode.  I 
expected it would redraw the characters slighly offset, or something.
It doesn't appear to.

For reference, I don't have an Epson printer, but rather an IBM-PC graphics
printer, which I am under the (mis-?)impression is code compatable.  It is
connected via a Microfazer Serial-to-Parallel buffer, which is in turn
connected to the serial port.  I kind of doubt the Microfazer is responsible,
but the serial/parallel difference could be.

Incidentally, does anyone know why the translation to printer-specific
codes is done by code rather than tables+some interpretive code?  I can't
imagine that there would be a performance issue.  Also, why doesn't any
available software spawn printer tasks and let me get back to my work?
At least nothing I've seen.  Thank god for a 64K printer buffer, but why
did I buy a multi-tasking machine if no one is going to use the 
multi-tasking?