Douglas Caviness wrote:

> Situation: Two 3000's, one in Maryland, one in California. I have set up the
> system in MD to be able to print to a networked laser printer in CA, but that
> is not what they want.

(isn't that always how it is? :-)

> They "need" to print from the MD system to a "forms" printer in CA.

ok....

> This is, I suspect, an impact printer for multi-part forms, connected to a
> DTC in the CA office, controlled by the CA system. Are there any ways of
> having two MPE/iX machines send data to the same DTC?

well, yeah....but only if you want to have a full-time job of baby sitting
these dtc's.  the newer dtc's are routable but...you really don't to go this
route.  (trust me :-)

> Has anyone tried printing forms to a network connected impact printer?

yup.  do it most every day.

> There are some on the market, but they are expensive. Would I have to have
> new a printer driver?

i'd suggest checking into the lpq printers from hp.  they'll connect onto the
network and they're impact printers.

> I believe that when you set up a network printer on MPE/iX that
> the type is straight ASCII, but could I use a different SYSGEN ID type than
> HPTCPJD?

not that i know of....

> I know I can specify different environment files, but that only
> controls the overall setup of the printer, not how to do things like head
> positioning and paper advancing.

i believe how this communication is handled is thru the firmware downloaded to
the printer.  these lpq printers really are computers that happen to print.  a
lot of work has been done to the firmware to 'make' it understand mpe carriage
control.  imo, it's worth looking into.     - d

--
Donna Garverick     Sr. System Programmer
925-210-6631        [log in to unmask]

>>>MY opinions, not Longs Drug Stores'<<<

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