nolan@helios.unl.edu (Michael Nolan) (02/18/91)
The subject line more or less says it all. For reasons too strange to tell, I occasionally need to use my HP DeskWriter on a PC system instead of the Mac. Is this possible? I know that I can probably network the PC and the Mac (Tops, etc), but is there a way to do it standalone? Michael Nolan nolan@helios.unl.edu
neff@hp-vcd.HP.COM (Dave Neff) (02/21/91)
Regarding using the DeskWriter with a PC: The DeskWriter is a graphics only device with a single ugly built in font for error messages. It only runs at 57K baud serial or LocalTalk. Since most PC's don't do 57K baud that leave LocalTalk. If you are using PC applications that output graphics only in a format for the DeskJet+ or DeskJet 500, and you can save the graphics to a file, you can then use Tops (i.e. tprint program) to send the file to a DeskWriter. It is also very easy to write you own little program that will dump a file using the PAP protocol -- it can all be done in C using by calling the PC LocalTalk driver. Of course you will need to buy the LocalTalk card for the PC, and Tops, and LocalTalk cables. And by the time you have bought all that you have spent as much money as it would cost to buy a brand new DeskJet 500 :-). Of course you might already have some of the needed hardware and software, and Tops has other benefits as well (file sharing between Macs and PCs). But since many PC programs will dump text and try to select fonts that are built in to the printer, these sorts of programs will not be usable with the DeskWriter. So the bottom line is, yes, you can dump some files to a DeskWriter from a PC, but it isn't a clean or a complete solution. Its also "not supported" by HP, which means if you run into a problem and call our help line they will probably be useless (but they will try to help). I use PC LocalTalk to DeskWriter all the time to test and debug the DeskWriter. This is partly due to the fact that our standard printer test suite consists of files and a test program that runs on an MS-DOS PC. I then send the output of the test program to files and then dump the files over LocalTalk to a printer (I use a program we wrote here, but I have confirmed that the Tops tprint program also works -- once you get the right runstring options). This ability has also been useful for testing the DeskWriter printer independantly of the driver and to insure all the escape sequences work -- even cases that the driver does not presently use. I hope you didn't want a simple yes or no answer. I'm not very good at giving those kinds of answers :-). Life always seems to be more complicated than that. But in my opinion the answer is more of a no than a yes -- but it depends on what you are trying to do. Dave Neff Neff@hpvcfs1.HP.COM