Re: appletalk printing w/ proterm 3.1

[rb <rbooker@darkwing.uoregon.edu>]

On Thu, 12 Sep 1996, David Empson wrote:

> rb <rbooker@darkwing.uoregon.edu> wrote:
>  
> > it is the imagewriter that is not responding.
> 
> Just eliminating the obvious first...
> 
> I assume you are using CHOOSER.II or the appropriate IIgs control panel
> to select the printer in each case?

this is a tangential problem.  often i prefer to boot directly into p8 to 
launch quickly 8 bit programs (including proterm).  Chooser II won't run 
unless slot 7 is set to appletalk, but i have a rom 3 with a ramfast in 
that slot (appletalk in slot 1).  so, is the gsos net printer control 
panel the only way i can get access to a networked printer in 8 bit 
programs (without moving that card (and loosing that slot))?  also, i 
have tried setting the slot to appletalk and booting from slot 5.  
Chooser II launches, but lists no printers as available.  must the card 
be removed from slot 7 for this to work properly, or is there another 
problem?

> Are you able to print to the ImageWriter from a GS/OS program?

yes.
 
> > it is the laserwriter that is overprinting on one line.
> 
> This implies that nothing is sending line feeds, or they are being
> stripped out somewhere.  Check the printer port settings in the Control
> Panel - if they are set to their default values, then the firmware is
> not deleting line feeds, and is adding one after each CR.  This is how
> my IIgs is configured, and it works fine with my networked ImageWriter
> II.

yes, they are set to the defalts.  the line feeds should be getting to 
the printer.  see below.

> > as for the imagewriter (which i prefer to the laserwriter for on-line data
> > printing), one thing i didn't mention is that it is equipped with a
> > sheet-feeder.  is that relevant?
> 
> It might be.  I have had trouble with AppleWorks printing to my
> networked ImageWriter II with a sheetfeeder installed.  I have found
> that (most of the time) the first sheet is not fed in automatically.  I
> have to put the printer offline, press the form feed button to load the
> first sheet of paper, then put the printer online again.  Everything
> prints fine after this point, until the end of the job.  I then have to
> repeat the process for the next job.

this got results, but a further problem as well.  i form-fed the first 
sheet, and the imagewriter responded.  however, like the laserwriter 
(with IWEM downloaded), it overprinted on one line. any ideas about what 
could be happenning to those line feeds on both printers? 
 
> I suspect it is a bug in the RPM code in the IIgs (which is not used by
> the GS/OS AppleTalk printer driver), which makes the computer think the
> printer is not ready because there is currently no paper in it.
> 
> There is no problem using a directly connected ImageWriter with a sheet
> feeder.

thanks again for the helpful advice.  --robb