Re: AppleWorks and Epson RX-80 printer won't work

[dempson@atlantis.actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

In article <95060.160838KCR103@psuvm.psu.edu>,
Ken Richardson  <KCR103@psuvm.psu.edu> wrote:
> I have been trying to get my old Epson to work with Appleworks.
> I have connected the printer via an Epson APL card and the printer works
> from Basic.

It is an incompatibility between AppleWorks and the Epson APL card.  It
happens with all versions of AppleWorks (well, I don't know if anyone
has tried 5.0, but it defintely doesn't work with 4.0.2 and earlier).

There are at least two versions of the APL card.  The one labelled
"EPSON APL B" is known to fail, but I think the newer version works
OK.

I have been given one of the new ones (thanks, Jim!) but haven't
had a chance to try it with a real printer yet - it certainly appears
to work (AppleWorks hangs while waiting for the printer, whereas it
prints into nowhere with the APL B card).

I think I know what is causing this, but my first attempt to produce a
patch for AppleWorks was not successful.  It would be much easier if I
had an APL B card here, and I'm trying to track down one locally (they
are quite common around Wellington, so I should be able to find a
member of my user group who has one they aren't using).


If you want to get it working in a hurry, I suggest you get another
parallel card.  A Grappler+ or an Apple Parallel Interface Card should
work fine with AppleWorks (as will almost any other third-party
parallel card).
-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand