Re: Looking for an Apple 2 Program?

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

In article <31C88D00.4FA9@uqtr.uquebec.ca>,
Patrick Lessard  <lessardp@uqtr.uquebec.ca> wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> I'm looking for a program that send a file to the slot #1 (Printer)
> for Apple 2e. I need something to dump the exact file (no headers, no 
> formatting or something else). In fact I need a program to do a raw send 
> of a file (binary,text or anything else).

Shouldn't be too hard.  There are two catches:

1. You can't do it directly in BASIC, because it always sets bit 7 of
   characters output via PRINT.  This can be avoided by using a machine
   language subroutine to do the output.

2. Most printer cards have automatic formatting of data transmitted through
   their firmware (e.g. adding line feeds or forcing a line break
   after a certain number of characters).  There is usually some way
   to turn these features off, but it is specific to each card.

An alternative would be to bypass the firmware, where necessary,
but that would make the program specific to a particular card
(unless it was able to identify the card, or be told which card was
installed, and has support for lots of cards).

What printer interface card do you have?  I should be able to whip up
a program like this which is specific to your card (I have
documentation here for the Apple Parallel Interface Card, Grappler+,
Super Serial Card, a few third-party serial cards, and the IIgs
firmware; anything else might be tricky.)
-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand