howell@unc.UUCP (William Howell) (04/23/86)
I am using Word version 2.0 on an IBM-PC/AT connected to an
Apple LaserWriter. This is a supported configuration. I
experience two gross bugs, that I am wondering if anyone
else experiences and better if anyone knows how to solve.
And even better, if MICROSOFT is listening, maybe they can
tell me how to solve these!
(1) The AT has over 1 mb of memory. On even the most trivial
documents, (i.e. 1 page) WORD complains that it is running out
of memory, and "SAVE" flashes continuously even after you have
saved the document. Note this only happens if I have selected
the printer driver for the Apple LaserWriter. It doesn't happen
with other printer drivers.
(2) When attempting to print, WORD can manage to get the first
couple pages of a document out to the Apple LaserWriter and then
it just gives up, continues to tell me that it is formatting
each page but the LaserWriter doesn't print anything. When this
happens it takes repeated attempts to get WORD and the LaserWriter
re-synchronized.
Any help that anyone can offer will be very much appreciated.
Thanks.
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ARPANET: howell%unc@csnet-relaytj@utcs (04/30/86)
I can't help with the out of memory problem, but I suspect the second problem is due to handshaking problems. The Laserwriter can't keep up at 9600 baud so it sends Xoff and you need software running on the PC that will pause when it gets Xoff. Note that the Laserwriter comes factory configured for parity ignored and high bit 0 on transmit so possibly the xoff isn't being recognized because of its parity (lack of). This happened to me recently, about two pages of output would come out then the rest gets flushed till it gets a ^D end of file character. There is a way to permanently set the parity of the Laserwriter via software, see the manual. tj
cramer@kontron (05/01/86)
> > I can't help with the out of memory problem, but I suspect the second problem > is due to handshaking problems. The Laserwriter can't keep up at 9600 baud > so it sends Xoff and you need software running on the PC that will pause > when it gets Xoff. Note that the Laserwriter comes factory configured for > parity ignored and high bit 0 on transmit so possibly the xoff isn't being > recognized because of its parity (lack of). This happened to me recently, about > two pages of output would come out then the rest gets flushed till it gets > a ^D end of file character. There is a way to permanently set the parity > of the Laserwriter via software, see the manual. > tj Amen to the XON/XOFF problem. PC-DOS provides NO built-in XON/XOFF support. I would very much like to have an installable device driver for PC-DOS that allowed a C program to open COM1 or COM2 just like any other device, but no one seems to build one. For someone experienced in building PC-DOS installable device drivers, this should be a pretty trivial problem. We are building a product right now for PC-DOS machines that could use such a driver -- but we can't find such a driver available for sale. Please. Someone build this thing, and make my life easier, and you a little wealthier. If you know of such a product, please contact me. Clayton E. Cramer
lotto@talcott (05/02/86)
In article <753@kontron.UUCP>, cramer@kontron.UUCP writes: > > > > is due to handshaking problems. The Laserwriter can't keep up at 9600 baud > > so it sends Xoff and you need software running on the PC that will pause > > when it gets Xoff. Note that the Laserwriter comes factory configured for > > parity ignored and high bit 0 on transmit so possibly the xoff isn't being > > ... > > tj The laserwriter plus can be configured for DTR flow control and the serial port is not hardwired at 9600 baud, the characteristics are settable via postscript. Of course, as is the habit of Apple computer, this information is available only through the large "Inside Laserwriter" manual. I guess that they figure most users will not want to hook the Laserwriter up to anything serially. > Amen to the XON/XOFF problem. PC-DOS provides NO built-in XON/XOFF support. > I would very much like to have an installable device driver for PC-DOS that > allowed a C program to open COM1 or COM2 just like any other device, but > ... > Clayton E. Cramer Such a beastie has been written at MIT (called COMPKG#) which is really just the set of subroutines one would need to do a job like this. I do not know if a device driver has been constructed from them. It has been available from isib for anonymous FTP and is (arpa|public) domain. -- Gerald Lotto - Harvard Chemistry Dept. UUCP: {seismo,harpo,ihnp4,linus,allegra,ut-sally}!harvard!lhasa!lotto ARPA: lotto@harvard.EDU CSNET: lotto%harvard@csnet-relay
tsp@chinet.UUCP (Tom Poindexter) (05/02/86)
In article <753@kontron.UUCP> cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) writes: >> >Amen to the XON/XOFF problem. PC-DOS provides NO built-in XON/XOFF support. >I would very much like to have an installable device driver for PC-DOS that >allowed a C program to open COM1 or COM2 just like any other device, but >no one seems to build one. > >Please. Someone build this thing, and make my life easier, and you a little >wealthier. If you know of such a product, please contact me. > >Clayton E. Cramer It has been written. I have a device driver for com1 & 2 written by Mike Higgins (copyrighted, but permission for distribution). It's about 48k of asm code. Comments say it supports Xon and hardware DSR/CTS, 128 byte send/receive buffers, other goodies. I have not used it, however. I can't post it to the net, but here are some sources: - Mike Higgins, P.O. Box 197, Duncans Mills, CA 95430 - ISU bbs: 309-438-7370 -- Tom Poindexter UUCP: ihnp4!chinet!tsp Compuserve: 70040,1223 Source: STW526 Dialcom: 44:SFP008
mjg@ecsvax.UUCP (Michael Gingell) (05/09/86)
talking of bugs in Word, I use version 2 with an Epson LQ1500 printer. Every so often when printing it picks a word clear out of the middle of a sentence, leaves white space where the word should have been and prints the word over on the right hand side of the page. It never picks part of a word, always a whole one so I suspect the printer is not responding properly to the control codes. Help - has anyone else seen anything like this ? Mike Gingell, ...decvax!mcnc!ecsvax!mjg
bright@dataio.UUCP (05/14/86)
In article <753@kontron> cramer@kontron writes: >Amen to the XON/XOFF problem. PC-DOS provides NO built-in XON/XOFF support. >I would very much like to have an installable device driver for PC-DOS that >allowed a C program to open COM1 or COM2 just like any other device, but >no one seems to build one. PC-DOS also doesn't do interrupt driven I/O to COM1. This makes it impossible to write 'well-behaved' programs when you need interrupted I/O instead of polled I/O. The BIOS doesn't support it either, which is a mystery since all the hardware support for it is in place, and it's easy code to write.