Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!hp-pcd!hplsla!andyc
From: andyc@hplsla.HP.COM (Andy Cassino)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: LDW Power
Message-ID: <5440020@hplsla.HP.COM>
Date: 10 Apr 89 21:16:05 GMT
References: <5440019@hplsla.HP.COM>
Organization: HP Lake Stevens, WA
Lines: 42

In my previous posting re: LDW Power, I said:

| Alas, LDW has another Achille's heel, and that is in its printing
| capabilities. If you want anything but plain-vanilla 80-column draft
| quality, you have to determine and enter the proper escape codes into
| the setup string that LDW thoughtfully sends out before printing! (At
| least this is my surmise of how this might work. I haven't tried it
| yet, since I don't have an owner's manual for my printer. And LDW's
| manual is silent on the actual use of the setup string, I guess they
| assume it is obvious what you do with it.)


Here' an update on this. For one, this is apparently the same situation with
Lotus, and one of the reasons Lotus is losing some ground to Excel, etc.
Lotus will remedy these problems in their version 3, which is NOT yet out,
but due real soon now. 

This weekend I borrowed a printer manual and was able to print spreadsheets
from LDW in NLQ and using other printer features. HOWEVER, there are two
limitations in LDW that make this difficult. One is, regardless of your
printer setting, if you want >80 columns, you have to select the "Unformatted"
print option. Okay, but the printer setup string is not sent out with this
option selected, so you have to first print something "Formatted" to get the
printer set-up and then switch over to "Unformmated". The second limitation
is that LDW Power doesn't pass all ASCII codes. For instance, I can get NLQ
on my printer by sending ESC+n (proven in GFA Basic by using the statement
"Lprint CHR$(27)+"n"). From LDW, the equivalent string \027n doesn't work, 
neither does \027\111! It doesn't make sense. I have to use another printer
command (ESC+x+1) to get NLQ from LDW's setup string.

So, I can now printout a spread sheet about 120 columns wide in compressed
NLQ type on my 9-pin printer that looks quite nice.

Another correction: though my LDW manual claims Lotus Version 1
compatibility, the (presumably more up-to-date) README file on disc claims
Lotus Version 2 compatibility.


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    % Andy Cassino                                                  %
    % uucp: hplabs!hplsla!andyc  domain: andyc%hplsla@hplabs.hp.com %
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