Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!ucsd!rutgers!att!chinet!edlee
From: edlee@chinet.chi.il.us (Edward Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Epson LX-800 to Tandy 1000A
Keywords: Unwanted Doublespacing
Message-ID: <7365@chinet.chi.il.us>
Date: 4 Jan 89 08:31:40 GMT
References: <3855@alvin.mcnc.org>
Reply-To: edlee@chinet.chi.il.us (Edward Lee)
Organization: Chinet - Public Access Unix
Lines: 40

In article <3855@alvin.mcnc.org> jewett@mcnc.org (Rusty Ford Jewett) writes:
>This is so frustrating!  I recieved an Epson LX-800 printer for Christmas,
>and am trying to use it with a Tandy 1000A.  The problem is that I get an
>extra line feed between every line I print.  This first seems to be a mere 
>dip switch problem, but I don't think it is.  I have tried the dip switch
>that controls the carriage return/linefeed definition, but there is no effect.
>I did manage to do screen dumps using shift-printscreen by using a program
>that eliminates the extra line feed in DOS.  [....]

Stripping line feeds that go to the printer may solve the double-spacing.
The printer probably expects a line to end with a Carriage Return, to which
the printer will automatically add a Line Feed character.  MS-DOS text
files are usually terminated by a Carriage Return/Line Feed (CR/LF) pair of
characters.  The reason that pressing Shift-PrtSc works is that the screen
image is outputted to the printer as the screen appears.  The screen does
not need to have Carriage Returns or Linefeeds on it when displaying text,
because the purpose of those characters is to let the display device 
(e.g. terminal, printer, or computer connected to a monitor in this case)
know when to stop printing characters on one line.  It would be inefficient
for a computer to actually display the CR/LF characters on the screen, so
the computer is programmed not to do so.  Non-MSDOS computers sometimes
terminate a text line with only a Carriage Return, which saves one byte 
per each line (which adds up to a 100,000 byte savings in a 100,000-line
text file), compared to ending each text line with the CR/LF character pair.
Your printer probably defaults to receiving lines that are size-efficiently 
terminated with only a Carriage Return instead of with the size-inefficient 
Carriage Return/Line Feed pair.  You can write a program to strip all
the Line Feeds heading to the printer.

However, it may be easier for you to change a dip switch or two in the printer
to shut off auto-linefeeds.  You suggested that your printer had such dip
switches.  If you didn't turn off the printer each time you changed its
dip-switch settings, then that is what I suggest you do.  Your printer
only checks its dip switch settings immediately after it is turned on.  
So, if you change the dip switch settings while the printer is on, the
printer will not know that you have changed the settings until you
shut the printer off and turn it on again.


-Ed L