dbplass@abp.lcs.mit.edu (David Plass) (02/24/90)
Hello in netland. I have a Mac SE and an Adler 310 (daisy wheel) printer that I'd like to connect. The printer has both RS-232 and parallel (IEEE-488) ports on it. What would be involved in (1) Physically connecting the two and (2) driving the printer from the Mac? Also, would it be asking for trouble to try to convert, say, WriteNow formatting commands (e.g. underline & bold) to the printer's command codes? I'd be writing the driver in Lightspeed Pascal or Think C (v. 3.0). Thanx in advance David Plass dbplass@aj.lcs.mit.edu Please respond via mail, not the net.
john@newave.UUCP (John A. Weeks III) (02/25/90)
In article <1990Feb23.192520.5844@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu> dbplass@apple-juice.UUCP (David Plass) writes: > I have a Mac SE and an Adler 310 (daisy wheel) printer that I'd like > to connect. The printer has both RS-232 and parallel (IEEE-488) ports > on it. > What would be involved in (1) Physically connecting the two The mac serial plug is compatible with most RS-232 devices that I have tried. Ask your dealer for a Mac+ to ImageWriter I cable. > and (2) driving the printer from the Mac? This will require some experimenting. First, try Draft mode using the standard imagewriter driver. This mode sends the ASCII characters out the serial port, but with some imbedded escape codes that might mess up your printer. If this doesn't work, check into PrintWorks for the Mac. These people market a number of chooser lever printer drivers for many printers. Other companies also make Mac printer drivers. Orange Micro has a thing called Grapler that might work out (althoug I have heard that it is a hassle using their non-chooser level software). > Also, would it be asking > for trouble to try to convert, say, WriteNow formatting commands (e.g. > underline & bold) to the printer's command codes? A chooser level printer driver would do this for you...if one exists. Trying to capture the printing going out the serial port would be a programming challenge. >I'd be writing the driver in Lightspeed Pascal or Think C (v. 3.0). Writing a printer driver is one of the more difficult and somewhat undocumented areas of the Mac. One suggestion would be to take a look at Tom Swan's book "Programming with Macintosh Turbo Pascal". He steps the reader through the process of building a printing program for the Macintosh. -john- -- =============================================================================== John A. Weeks III (612) 942-6969 john@newave.mn.org NeWave Communications ...uunet!rosevax!bungia!wd0gol!newave!john ===============================================================================