Re: what are the current dos compatible HP printers?


rwap wrote:
The only thing is that this makes too many presumptions (along with the
printer industry):

1) That the DOS application can be amended to work with a network port
- most would output direct to LPT1 and I don't know (sorry if I sound
thick), but may not be able to run inside a Windows DOS Box so how do
you re-direct the parallel port to capture it?

I believe it's
"net use lpt1 \\printserver\printer /persistent:yes"

This is straight dos with the Lan Manager. Seen it used on XT
generation systems without issue. I don't remember the exact command
line syntax because the handy dandy manager has spiffy text driven pull
down menus that allow you to plop in all the approperate fields.

Granted, I have not seen it run on anything below a "Turbo XT", I think
the most lame machine i've seen it used on was a 8086 Xerox with some
odd ball 25 pin display port.

To be 100% clear, port redirection is handled by the Microsoft Lan
Manager software.

2) Real time applications are often running on Programmable Logic
Controllers which do not run DOS but a specific logic control software
which has its own network capabilities (such as ControlNet) - here the
length of time a program takes to run (and even loop times) can be
critical - we are talking of nanoseconds making a difference, as it
may need to monitor up to 255 inputs from various items of hardware
(motors, pecs etc) and set outputs which may change within a couple of
nanoseconds. Printers are critical as often the PLC is housed
somewhere inaccessible where you cannot get to the screen !!

Fair enough. I was talking MS-DOS. But I imagine freeing up cpu
cycles by printing via the network interface might have a negative
impact, and an additional tsr and driver might consume a couple.

3) Believe it or not but some control systems do not have much memory
(eg. 64K) and so you cannot afford to add extra drivers - you are lucky
if you can send a simple stream of plain text and carriage returns -
the beauty of epsons - need a lot less control codes than PCL language

The protocal for the HP laserjet, which is included in emulation, can
handle ascii just fine. I don't know about current lasers, but i've
seen quite a few with Epson emulation as well. Still many lasers that
can accept a text dump with nothing more than <CR><LF> and <Page
break>, and heck you can even define only <CR> or just throw text at
it.

As for memory, well I said in the first place that in cases where all
the conventional memory is being used it might be, in such a case I'm
willing to believe

4) That a regulating authority (BAA and CAA are good examples) will
allow you to network the control equipment (even to just a printer) -
they like to know that the system is completely secure and that the
only way a computer could be connected to it is via the plug on the
front panel (and by someone who has physically gone through security
checks). In most cases you have to get new equipment approved by them
- including printers to ensure that the font used matches their
criteria for easy recognition in all conditions.

To be honest, I can't answer this, but I'm sure the Microsoft Lan
Manager is well documented enough to be listed or not listed. I am
talking early DOS, I'd estimate the time period where Novell and
Lantastic were the norm. As for the font, courier 10cpi good enough, I
believe that's still installed on most lasers by default which can turn
out a page with only plain text input. But there are a slew of onboard
printer fonts which are likely to still exist. Whether these are
acceptable for the application or not, I can't say. Odds courier pica
and elite are among those.

But this is an issue you'll run into when ever you replace a printer.
The cabling and protocal don't affect the font.

Unfortunately, all this is easily forgotten by those who think that a
computer means a Windows controlled desktop or laptop.

That's the thing... I was not forgetting this. I was so not forgetting
this. Lanmanager for dos is simply that... it's for dos. It's as dos
as you can get. If you need to print on a dos based machine, and can't
get a USB printer, network was supported pretty well. So long as you
have enough in the way of conventional memory, doesn't cause any
critical speed hangups, and doesn't conflict with anything, it's a
mighty fine solution to a world that has abandoned ye old parallel
port. There are some tricks one can peform to boost one's conventional
memory, there was an old utility I remember that was perfectly happy to
ditch color support and get you 704k, and good old QEMM. But for
dedicated control systems I would agree you want to monkey as little as
possible.

Now if we were talking about a dos app under a window, you can also
employ the net use command to redirect output from lpt to a network
printer, where that network printer can be the local one (i.e.
127.0.0.1). But if windows is NOT an option... Lan manager for dos
very well could be.

But the alternative would be a dongle which would accept printer data
and pass it along to a network printer If it did it would cover most
of the requirements which you are addressing. If you are "trully"
interested in the subject of getting a machine with only 64k to print
to a network printer... http://www.embeddedethernet.com/
The Systor Vest AS' CS8900a ethernet control has been used in other
situations to interface some pretty specalized hardware to ethernet
devices. To be honest I've only heard of it, here we are
http://tfe.c64.org/
Web server running on a C64 with only 64K of memory.

.

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