Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!dgc.mceo.dg.COM!David_Kopper From: David_Kopper@dgc.mceo.dg.COM Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: Re: Grappler C/Mac/GS Message-ID: <8904052157.AS00043@adam.DG.COM> Date: 5 Apr 89 20:57:24 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: DAVE%wally.mceo.dg.com@relay.cs.net Organization: The Internet Lines: 69 CEO file contents: Hi! Its me again (this network stuff is kinda fun!) David Seah said that he was having problems with his Grappler C/Mac/GS. (IE: He has to flip the dip switches on his Grappler C/Mac/GS to be able to print text.) I don't believe that this is a problem with the Grappler C/Mac/GS - but it seems to be a configuration issue for the printing software that he is using. I thought more people might be interested in this explaination, so here goes... Let me try to explain this problem with an example. Lets start with a table of what a couple of escape sequences do on the involved printers. Result | generic printer | Imagewriter printer -----------------+-------------------+----------------------- Bold text | A | B Graphics mode | C | A Note: Those sequences are imaginary - I made them up. I don't have the Imagewriter manual in front of me (and the generic printer is entirely fictional - but lets imagine that its a printer supported by the Grappler C/Mac/GS). The Grappler C/Mac/GS is setup for Imagewriter emulation for the generic printer. You run one of your programs that prints text. It sends an 'A' - to set the printer up to print bold text. The Grappler C/Mac/GS gets this 'A' and since its emulating a imagewriter, it must translate it into the escape sequence for the generic printer that will do the same thing (IE: 'C'). The generic printer gets 'C' and sets itself up to print in graphics mode. You get all kinds of trash printed. If the Grappler C/Mac/GS was setup for either 7-bit or 8-bit parallel interface - then the 'A' would not have been translated by the Grappler. And your text would have come out just fine. The manual for the Grappler C/Mac/GS doesn't explain this 'functional problem' in much detail - so its easy to see how it could get confusing. This could happen to any number of escape sequences - that is why the manual says to catagize your software as to what printers the software supports. The manual tells you how to set the switches, according to what your software requires - not implying that you'd be changing the dip switches with each program. I agree that the manual is pretty poor in this area - hopefully they will fix it in the future. I called their tech. support number and asked about them adding a section that describes how their interface works in the manual (instead of setup stuff then a large discussion on the software shipped with it and then a small section on troubleshooting and a little fiew diagrams). The engineer that I talked to said that he would pass my comments on to the right person. They seem to have reasonable people on the Tech. Support phone lines! >The design of the adapter bothers me too. (wow - I even got a > in there and everything...) I agree - the adapter bothers me too. Disclaimer: I don't work for Orange Micro - but I'm still a VERY happy customer of theirs! >| <<<<<(((((( DAVE SEAH ))))))>>>>> | Internet: dseah@wpi.wpi.edu >| Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Bitnet: dseah@wpi.bitnet >| Computer Engineering Class of '90 | ALink PE: Omnitreant Internet: Dave@wally.ceo.dg.com o o BITNET: Dave%wally.ceo.dg.com@adam.dg.com \__/ (or) David_Kopper%wally.ceo.dg.com@relay.cs.net USnail: 306 Windsor Ridge Drive, Westboro, MA 01581