Re: USB printers again

["George Scithers" owlswickpress@xxxxxxxx]

And then there are things that one can plug into a parallel port
at one end, and have a USB receptacle at the other end. I saw one
priced at Staples for abound $29.00 or so.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Patricia M Godfrey" 
To: 
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2003 11:28 AM
Subject: USB printers again


> Re Paul Breeze's solution: there are two issues, it seems: 1)
Printer
> contol language compatibility. Xy has drivers for older HPs,
Epsons, and
> PostScript printers and they can usually be used with more
recent
> versions of those printers, though one won't get all the
features of the
> newer printers. For example, I use the HP LJ2P driver to print
to a
> Deskjet 855C at the office with decent results (cannot get a
smart
> apostrophe, but that may be a function of HP's different
character set
> assignments); I used to use the Epson LQ850 driver with my
Stylus Color
> 800 before it died; Postscript is more iffy: the Post 45N
driver sends
> the office HP 5000N in Postscript mode into a frenzy of
printing pages
> with a couple of letters of code.
> 2) Routing the data: Xy expects to send data to a serial or
parallel port
> or a file. It never heard of USB and cannot recognize a USB
port. So we
> need some routine, external to Xy, that will map or route what
Xy sends
> to an LPT or COM port or a file to the USB port. Ironically, in
Windows
> 9x, you can print to a file and then print the (printer-coded)
file ONLY
> by using the DOS "copy filename.ext lpt1" command, not by drag
and drop.
> (There is an exception, IIRC, for Postscript.) As I may have
mentioned my
> (AMI) BIOS has a setting "USB for DOS," but no documentation on
how to
> use it. It's obviously possible if HP did it for its printer. I
also note
> that Linux had methods for printing to USB ports. Perhaps we
should
> contact the Free Software Foundation and see if anyone there
would be
> interested in writing an LPT to USB mapping routine. We are not
the only
> DOS diehards. Our borough engineer tells me he used certain CAD
> applications that can only run under DOS.
> Patricia
>
>