Laser printer compatibility

[Jane Van Tassel 101233.342@xxxxxxxx]

Having been a user of XyWrite for 8 years and a delighted, nay enchanted, lurker
on this list for a couple of weeks, I would be grateful for advice on hardware
compatibility.

I am planning to buy a laser printer to use with XyDOS 4 and/or XyWin. Does
anyone have any warnings, or encouragement, concerning these printers?
	Brother HL-370
	NEC SuperScript 860
	Panasonic KX-P6100 (or other fancier printers in the 6000 series)
	HP LaserJet 5L

If you have advice to offer and don't want to know why I'm asking, read no
further. If you have nothing better to do, here is my tale ---------------

I switched from XyW III+ to XyDOS 4 and XyWin in mid 1994 ...

(Since this touches on a recent thread, I'll just say that I was v. pleased by
most of the changes from III+ to DOS 4, especially the improvements in wild
cards and the introduction of additive mode features. I found the transition
from III+ to 4 pretty painless, though I very much missed [and still miss]
having a decent XPL manual for Xy 4, and I certainly wish there was a Xy4
counterpart to Tyson's "XyWrite Revealed" -- or if there is one, I don't know
about it.)

... anyway, I took up XyDOS 4 but almost immediately had to add XyWin: this was
because I used some severance pay (having been downsized out of a job where I'd
had an HP III printer to use with XyW III) to buy a laser printer for my home
office, and made the mistake of buying a Texas MicroWriter, which hated XyDOS
and would respond sensibly only when its Windows driver was installed.

To cut a long story short, I soon found that the Texas was full of bugs even in
Windows mode, but I was stuck with it. Now, however, it's developed mechanical
faults too, and I'd like to use that as an excuse to abandon the Printer From
Hell and make a fresh start.

I'm prepared to go on living with XyWin if necessary for the printer's sake --
as I have been for 2 years plus. (At present, for most short jobs I simply open
XyWin and stay there, though I don't like various features; but I do use XyDOS
-- with its more versatile & more legible display, among many other trivial
virtues -- for any substantial writing or editing, even though that means that
if I then want to print, in anything other than the simplest 10point Courier, I
have to Quit, boot up XyWin, and recall the file.)

But I don't want to make the same mistake I made in '94 with the T.I. printer --
i.e., buying a reasonably well-reviewed printer which happened to be available
at a bargain price, without considering whether it would turn out to be (as it
has been) the laser-printer equivalent of the WinFax debacle.

I've been studying some magazine review articles, and at my end of the price
spectrum the choice seems to lie between the Brother HL-370 and the NEC
SuperScript 860 -- though the Panasonic KX-P6000 range and the HP LaserJet 5L
also get good mentions, there's something not quite ideal about each for my
particular uses.

(I'm not a high-volume user [as high-volume users go], but I'm not low-volume
enough to carry the per-copy costs of an inkjet. That's because as a freelance
writer I revise heavily and repeatedly, and I've never learned how to revise
except on hard copy. My demands aren't subtle or complicated, but they do
include making up the local village newsletter, for which I need to be able to
use some quaint or kooky fonts and a few dingbats.)

Price is important -- as an American voluntarily (and permanently) exiled to
Western Europe, I have to face the fact that an HP 5L is likely to cost me $650,
and even the Brother HL-730 will run over $500 -- and my income as an editor and
writer is marginal at the best of times.

If anyone can tell me which printer to go for -- or which to avoid -- I'd be
grateful.

						Eric Van Tassel

Archways, Butts Lane, Fowlmere
Royston  SG8 7SL, England
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