Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!uunet!nuchat!uhnix1!woton!killer!codas!cpsc6a!atl2!akgua!cbosgd!ihnp4!ihuxv!rck
From: rck@ihuxv.ATT.COM (R. C. Kukuk)
Newsgroups: unix-pc.general,att.sys.unixpc
Subject: UNIX-PC vs. line printers
Message-ID: <2430@ihuxv.ATT.COM>
Date: 3 Feb 88 14:31:11 GMT
Distribution: unix-pc
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 24


Recently I added an Epson printer to my UNIX-PC.  I wanted to
be able to print in as many fonts and print sizes as possible,
so I modified the lp shell interface script to send various
escape sequences to the printer.  One of the sequences put the
printer into a mode for printing 8 lines per inch.

Well guess what, whenever I tried printing a file at 8 lpi, the
first 66 lines would print and then the printer would form feed
to the top of the next page.  Of course I blamed the printer and
made several calls to the Epson technical support people.
It was there I learned that I could put the printer into a data
dump mode that printed what it received in a form similar to those old
IBM core dumps.  When I printed (dumped) a file this way, I found
out that after 65 line feeds, the 66th had been replaced by a form
feed!.

Thank you, line printer driver!  You have no business
modifying a data stream; you should only pass the data from the
user to the printer!

Does anyone out there know how to disable this 66 line "feature"?

Ron Kukuk