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From: crum@utah-cs.UUCP (Gary L. Crum)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: printer driver character mapping question
Message-ID: <3816@utah-cs.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 8-Jun-86 20:59:21 EDT
Article-I.D.: utah-cs.3816
Posted: Sun Jun  8 20:59:21 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 10-Jun-86 02:02:17 EDT
Organization: University of Utah CS Dept
Lines: 25
Keywords: device dependent printer driver

I'm posting this article for u-rlcarl%utah-ug@utah-cs.{UUCP,ARPA} .

    I am writing an Amiga device dependent printer driver, but am having a
problem sending plain text to the printer.  The device Independent printer
code seems to assume that it can pass all printable characters directly to
the printer, without consulting the device dependent code.  This is fine
for the standard ASCII character set (codes from $20 to $7E), but doesn't
work at all when printing the Amiga's extended set of foreign and other
characters which have codes $A0 to $FF.  Most printers, including
IBM-compatible ones, have defined a completely different set of characters
in this range, and so an Amiga character usually has no resemblance at all
to its symbol printed by the printer.

    My printer has the capability of printing most of the Amiga's extended
characters, but I need some way to convert an Amiga printable character
into an equivalent character on my printer. Can the device dependent
printer code include a lookup table for translating printable characters
before they are sent to the printer?  Or is there a way to force the device
independent code to call some routine in the device dependent driver
whenever a printable character is to be sent to the printer?  I don't want
to have to run all of my text files through a separate filter before I send
them out to the printer!

    Thanks.
    Richard Carlson