ISSLTC@NUSVM.BITNET (Lim Thye Chean) (05/16/91)
Hi, Thye Chean again.
Is anybody there using Grappler C/Mac/GS to print document on the
Apple IIGS?
I bought this device when I am still using my old lovely Apple //c. It
is a very solid device and emulates ImageWriter beautifully. And I
expect it to work on Apple IIGS... oh boy I am wrong.
All the 8-bit softwares (AppleWorks 3.0, Publish It! 3.0, Multiscribe)
works fine, and WordPerfect GS 2.0 works fine. But that's almost the
end of the software I can use.
I try AppleWorks GS v1.1, GraphicWriter III on my Panasonic printer,
does not seems to work well. Friend told me that I should not use
the fantastic System 5.04 driver, so I try it on System 4 driver, the
AppleWorks GS word processor works fine, but not the desktop publisher.
I also happened to have Harmonie driver (thinking of getting a DeskJet
in the future), the ImageWriter driver print only 2/3 of the 1st page
of my 3-pages newsletter and hang.
So my questions are simple:
1. Is there any ImageWriter driver that works on Grappler C/Mac/GS?
2. If not, can anybody tell me which driver works with which packages?
Or, what program can work?
Help. The device has force me to consider getting a REAL ImageWriter II
and that is very expensive in Singapore.
***********************************************************************
*** Apple IIGS Forever ***
An Apple IIGS lover from Malaysia. A software engineer from Singapore.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Contact me at ISSLTC@NUSVM
Lim Thye Chean - Lim is my surname. My name is Thye Chean.
***********************************************************************mattd@Apple.COM (Matt Deatherage) (05/20/91)
[Long question about the Grappler C/MAC/GS deleted] Yes, it's true the Grappleer C/MAC/GS (the serial device that translates ImageWriter II codes to codes for other printers) doesn't work with the new 5.0.3+ ImageWriter II driver. I happened to share a table at lunch this week (at the 1991 Worldwide Developer's Conference) with an engineer from Orange Micro who told me why: Their ROM is not unlimited and in certain cases they like to make speed optimizations for common cases. They made one a long time ago involving the [Esc] F character sequence, which ostensibly moves the print head a given amount horizontally without printing anything. In all of the tests they ran, the only time they ever found this code being sent was by the Macintosh ImageWriter driver, which was using it to skip between gaps in characters in "draft" mode (the mode that uses the printer's built-in characters). So, since this was kind of slow when translated to other printer's codes, they optimized this to change it to a number of space characters (ASCII $20). This made things a bunch faster. Unfortunately for them, the new IW driver on 5.0.3+ does white-space compression. The old driver would print large areas of white space in a single scan line by printing lots of graphics characters that fired no printer pins. The new driver saves time by using the [Esc] F sequence to move the print head past the white space. Since the Grappler box converts this sequence to a series of ASCII spaces, which don't print in graphics mode as white space, the printout is messed up and any printout with enough white space to invoke the [Esc] F command will not work with the Grappler box under the 5.0.3+ drivers. Orange Micro knew about the problem but did not say if they intended to do anything about it, since the 5.0.2 drivers work with their product and upgrade costs are still pretty high for such a product. -- ============================================================================ Matt Deatherage, Developer Technical | The opinions expressed herein are Support, Apple Computer, Inc. | not those of Apple Computer, and Personal mail only, please. Thanks. | shame on you for thinking otherwise. ============================================================================
nagendra@bucsf.bu.edu (nagendra mishr) (05/20/91)
In article <53072@apple.Apple.COM> mattd@Apple.COM (Matt Deatherage) writes: > ...... > > Unfortunately for them, the new IW driver on 5.0.3+ does white-space > compression. The old driver would print large areas of white space in a > ....... You mean Unfortunately for us (Apple II), .... nagendra nagendra@bucsf.bu.edu
giovin@ecs.umass.edu (05/20/91)
In article <53072@apple.Apple.COM>, mattd@Apple.COM (Matt Deatherage) writes: > [Long question about the Grappler C/MAC/GS deleted] > > Yes, it's true the Grappleer C/MAC/GS (the serial device that translates > ImageWriter II codes to codes for other printers) doesn't work with the new > 5.0.3+ ImageWriter II driver. > Orange Micro knew about the problem but did not say if they intended to do > anything about it, since the 5.0.2 drivers work with their product and upgrade > costs are still pretty high for such a product. This isn't completely true. Unless it is just due to the fact that I don't have a new revision of Grappler C/Mac/GS, the Grappler doesn't emulate the ImageWriter II in "best text" mode for any of the programs or drivers that I have tried. I wrote to Orange Micro 3 years ago about this and was told by their technical department that this problem would be corrected after their Grappler LQ was done. Apparently, this never happened. Rocky Giovinazzo
PKBRANDON@MSUS1.MSUS.EDU (05/20/91)
Situation appears to be the same for the XETEC 924. I've used them both with my Epson RX and a number of drivers. NONE of the speeded-up printer drivers (IW2) seem to work, altho the new ImagewriterII driver is great if you actually have an IW2 (I use one at work). ====================================================================== === Paul Brandon Psychology Dept Mankato State Univ === === PKBRANDON@MSUS1.MSUS.EDU Mankato, MN 56001 === == 'Never ascribe to EVIL that which can be explained by STUPIDITY' == ======================================================================
mattd@Apple.COM (Matt Deatherage) (05/21/91)
In article <NAGENDRA.91May20013110@bucsf.bu.edu> nagendra@bucsf.bu.edu (nagendra mishr) writes: >In article <53072@apple.Apple.COM> mattd@Apple.COM (Matt Deatherage) writes: >> Unfortunately for them, the new IW driver on 5.0.3+ does white-space >> compression. The old driver would print large areas of white space in a > You mean > Unfortunately for us (Apple II), .... > >nagendra No, I don't. Don't put words in my mouth. I mean unfortunately for _them_. They cut a corner in an attempt to optimize their product for one target market and created a future (now present) incompatibility with another target market. It's not unfortunate for the Apple II -- what would be unfortunate for the Apple II would be to let broken peripherals like this box stop Apple from developing newer and more powerful ImageWriter software such as that included on 5.0.3 and later. Breaking rules is always a compatibility risk, and they knew it, so it's unfortunate for Orange Micro and their Apple IIgs customers. Using software or hardware that doesn't follow compatibility rules can leave you stuck with older versions required to use the product (in this case, the pre-5.0.3 ImageWriter driver), but it still works under those conditions. It's not an Apple II community-wide catastrophe and I didn't "mean" anything resembling that. -- ============================================================================ Matt Deatherage, Developer Technical | The opinions expressed herein are Support, Apple Computer, Inc. | not those of Apple Computer, and Personal mail only, please. Thanks. | shame on you for thinking otherwise. ^^^^^^^^ Technical questions are not personal. Please post them instead. ============================================================================
whitewolf@gnh-starport.cts.com (Tae Song) (05/27/91)
|In article <53072@apple.Apple.COM>, mattd@Apple.COM (Matt Deatherage) writes: |> [Long question about the Grappler C/MAC/GS deleted] |> |> Yes, it's true the Grappleer C/MAC/GS (the serial device that translates |> ImageWriter II codes to codes for other printers) doesn't work with the new |> 5.0.3+ ImageWriter II driver. | |> Orange Micro knew about the problem but did not say if they intended to do |> anything about it, since the 5.0.2 drivers work with their product and |> upgrade | |> costs are still pretty high for such a product. | |This isn't completely true. Unless it is just due to the fact that |I don't have a new revision of Grappler C/Mac/GS, the Grappler doesn't |emulate the ImageWriter II in "best text" mode for any of the programs |or drivers that I have tried. I wrote to Orange Micro 3 years ago about |this and was told by their technical department that this problem |would be corrected after their Grappler LQ was done. Apparently, this |never happened. | |Rocky Giovinazzo There's another prroduct on the market from Xetex, SuperWriter 924, inexpensive which does the same thing as the Grappler, and it works perfectly with the new drivers in 5.0x. I have one and it works great. Better than getting an IW XX, and less expensive... I'm planning on getting a 24-pin. Oh, it does support 9 AND 24-pin. A good product at a decent price. INET: whitewolf@gnh-starport.cts.com UUCP: crash!gnh-starport!whitewolf ARPA: crash!gnh-starport!whitewolf@nosc.mil
PKBRANDON@MSUS1.MSUS.EDU (05/28/91)
In regard to the Xetec 924 working "perfectly" with 5.04 printer drivers: What printer are you using, and what setting on the Xetec? My Xetec does *not* support ImagewriterII emulation with the new (5.03/5.04) Imagewriter driver! ------------------------------------------------------------------ --- Paul Brandon Psychology Dept Mankato State Univ --- --- PKBRANDON@MSUS1.MSUS.EDU Mankato, MN 56001 --- ------------------------------------------------------------------
whitewolf@gnh-starport.cts.com (Tae Song) (06/03/91)
|In regard to the Xetec 924 working "perfectly" with 5.04 printer drivers: |What printer are you using, and what setting on the Xetec? My Xetec does |*not* support ImagewriterII emulation with the new (5.03/5.04) Imagewriter |driver! Well, I did manage to print out stuff... but now that you mentioned it... I can remember if it works in IW II mode... is there any advantage over IW I mode? INET: whitewolf@gnh-starport.cts.com UUCP: crash!gnh-starport!whitewolf ARPA: crash!gnh-starport!whitewolf@nosc.mil
PKBRANDON@MSUS1.MSUS.EDU (06/07/91)
Full ImagewriterII support implies things like super/subscripts and print quality mode (I don't believe that the IW1 had a NLQ mode).
whitewolf@gnh-starport.cts.com (Tae Song) (06/13/91)
|Full ImagewriterII support implies things like super/subscripts and |print quality mode (I don't believe that the IW1 had a NLQ mode). Not very valid reasoning. I'm pretty sure I could do super/subscripts with mt SuperWriter 924/NLQ-180 (<- name of the printer) combo and do NLQ. Super/subscripts are available on almost every dot-matrix, I've seen so far and you can do NLQ prints, if your printer supports it. Maybe there needs to be a more specific driver for the IW II, but the IW I emulation gives you with a semi-decent NLQ printer pretty much everything the IW II does, minus colors (if your printer doesn't support it) and varitition in print speed, but having saved $300 in the process it is a small loss, IMHO. INET: whitewolf@gnh-starport.cts.com UUCP: crash!gnh-starport!whitewolf ARPA: crash!gnh-starport!whitewolf@nosc.mil