Tony Shepherd wrote:
> And if memory serves (it was a while ago) parity and 7/8 bit stuff could
> mess you up pretty bad too.  The last time I used one of those printers
> (early 80's) it took a while to make it work (on a Series III) and it never
> would work on a 48 {or vice-versa}.
>
> Finally solved the problem with a multiplexor - it was able to speak parity
> with a forked tonge.
 
Reminds me of when HP came out with the original LaserJet.  It would not
work on the HP 3000 III we had because the LaserJet did not have odd
parity as an option, and the 3000 could send nothing else out the spooler.
We solved the problem by finding a note in the MPE source code (yes!)
showing where to flip a bit to make the spooler talk EVEN on all ports.
Then we had the joy of finding the same table every time they recompiled,
since we no longer had current source code.  Spooler parity setting is one
of several things the RISC machines do better.  Tony is right, word size
and parity can play havoc with printer configs--including problems with
Xon/Xoff.  We have fought the battle several times with Epson printers,
since the guys that design the layout of their DIP switches came from a
very warm climate.  Their current board has a switch that says ON in big
letters, and a leeeeetle arrow that points in the _other_ direction.  But
if you can configure them right, those Epsons will outperform almost
anything else per dollar IMHO.
 
Bottom line on such things is: Talk to Telamon.  Unless they have changed
in recent years, they'll try to talk you into a software-configuration
solution.  If that fails, they will reluctantly sell you a little box
that _will_ solve the problem.  Strange company.  Hope they get rich.
--
         /\--.      John Beckett               "Fresh outta sigs"
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