Re: USB printer and OED

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from Paul Breeze  on Wed, 3 Sep
2003 18:56:11 +0100


> This installation of a new USB printer has not been all plain sailing. I have
> just discovered that my version of the OED is fatally wounded. I have to
> install a driver for a standard printer and set this as default if I want the
> dictionary to work. Has anybody come across a similar instance,
> and is there a solution other than manually resetting the default printer
> driver each time?

Hi Paul. It's a known problem with v1.10 and v1.11 of the OED software; I
believe we've discussed it here before (check out the thread at
http://xywrite.org/threads.htm#02380). The core problem is that
HP printer drivers screw up OED.EXE, whereas the equivalent M$ drivers -- the
ones supplied with M$ operating systems -- do not. It's a simple fix, and
always works. But the catch is that OpSyses released *before* an HP printer is
released don't have a built-in "equivalent", and therefore you have to
backlevel the driver (use a M$ driver for an earlier printer). I wasn't sure
whether that would work with USB, but apparently it does -- you say above that
you did it, and I presume you mean, by "a driver for a standard printer", one
of the built-in M$ drivers. Since the HP 1000 is a barebones laserjet, I can't
imagine that you're losing much functionality by backleveling to any PCL 5e
printer.

As for the issue of DOS and USB, I haven't really followed the discussion, but
the simplest way is to set XyWrite up to print to LPT1, using an LJ4 printer
file; then allow your 1000w printer to be shared, determine the name of the
share (NET VIEW command will print it to the console, or goto your printer ==>
Properties ==> Sharing ==> click "Shared as" ==> set or get the sharename in
the box there), and then redirect LPT1 to the share, thus:

NET USE LPT1 \\computername\sharename /PERSISTENT:YES

Just print normally from XyWrite to "LPT1". Should work.

Another solution (the one I use) is to TYF your document, then use the Unix
command LPR (Line Printer Remote) to send the document to your "network"
printer. Something like:

lpr -S 123.456.789.012 -P Hp1000 -o l d:\path\FO.TMP

where "-S" is the URL of the machine with the printer, "-P" is the printer
device (the sharename), "-o l" treats the file as binary data (which it is,
after processing through a XyWrite printer file), and FO.TMP is the default
output of TYF. The only thing I don't know is whether that will work on just
one machine and not a network. Worth a try, though, because it's fast and can
be automated: TYF, then dos/nv/x/z /c LPR ... -- always the same command,
always FO.TMP.


Good luck.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
-----------------------------