Re: Apple II printer availability

[pubpc1@library.ucla.edu]

shack@deimos.frii.com (Randy Shackelford) wrote:
>Edhel Iaur, Esq. <LOSETHECAPITALWORDSedhel@bigfoot.com> wrote:
>
>>>You need not look for such an old printer. My Personal LaserwriterNTR with
>>>postscript level 2 and RISC processor prints great with my //e. But a
>>>workstation card might be tricky to find.
>>
>>I think that's the exact printer my high school has--If so, doesn't it
>>have serial, parallel, AND AppleTalk ports?  A workstation card
>>shouldn't be needed.
>
>Yes it does. But using a port other than the localtalk port means only one
>box can connect to it. I've never tried, but I would expect the IW emulator
>not to work as well if at all on a direct connection.
>
>I have the NTR, an IW II, and a Color SW 2500 on my network with my Macs and
>IIgs. Believe me, it's much handier that way. No switch boxes or anything of
>the sort. Just pick the printer you want and print away.


Yo Randy, don't condemn it until you try it!  I have personally downloaded
the IWII emulation into an original LaserWriter with a direct serial
connection and it works fine.  Not as fast as localtalk, mind you, but
speedy enough (the parallel connection would probably be the fastest).

The original author was looking for a printer.  Workstation cards are hard
to find.  What you are saying will make people think they _must_ have
such a card, which is not true.  A simple Super Serial Card will do.

By the way, you should use the LaserWriter _as a LaserWriter_ as much as
you can.  Publish-It!, all GEOS software, and Springboard Publisher
supports this automatically and AppleWorks supports the LaserWriter for
straight text printing.  Most text based programs can be sent direct
Postscript with some programming (such as AppleWriter II's WPL Postscript
Macros) and I'm sure it is possible with WordPerfect.  Only old graphics
software such as Print Shop should suffer the need for IWII emulation.

-Scott G.