Off-topic: VPC puzzles

[Carlo Caballero carloc@xxxxxxxx]

I've wondered how many people on this list use XyWrite under Virtual PC.
Thanks to XySearch, I've been through the archives, and it seems that,
besides me, Russ Urquhart and perhaps Joseph Fisher have tried running
XyWrite on Macs in the VPC emulation. I've been going through a transition
to a new Mac PowerPC G4 since the beginning of this year, and I've been
playing with XyWrite on it for about two months. It's been tempting to
foist some of my problems onto this list, but I've resisted for a long
time. I recently wrote Russ directly, and he was very helpful. Now I
think my approach will be to make a short list of mysteries and see if they
ring any bells with other VPC+XyWrite users (if any there be).

Printing is really the only problem (no big news there) and seems to be
related to USB confusions. I am still using VPC 3.0, and it's possible an
upgrade to a more recent version that talks directly to OS X will solve all
the problems. But since Russ (who has VPC 6) told me he doesn't ever print
from XyWrite, I'm taking a chance that VPC 6 or 7 won't straighten things
out for me (I've gone ahead and bid on a clean copy of VPC 6.0, post OS X,
but pre-Redmond).

It's rather amazing that VPC 3.0 (which contains PCDOS-2000) works as well
as it does, since it's operating under a double emulation (OS 9 via OS X);
in fact, it works better now than it ever did on my old G3 running OS 9
directly! Except for printing, of course...

Here's a list of interesting experiences:

1. XY3 will print, but never XY4.

2. XY3 will only print using DEFAULT.PRN, not the drivers appropriate to an
HP laser printer. Naturally, the output using DEFAULT.PRN is severely
impoverished.

3. I can print to a *networked* printer reliably, but again only in XY3
with DEFAULT.PRN, never XY4.

4. Everything on my Mac, except the monitor, is connected via USB (of
course). If I have the option "USB Enabled" turned on in VPC, jobs only
reach my desktop printer 10% of the time. If I *disable* USB, then the
jobs reach the printer. This is the real paradox: to communicate with a
USB printer, disable USB devices!

5. Disabling USB devices also makes access to an external floppy and zip
drive regular and reliable. With "USB enabled," access is spotty, and once
it went, I didn't get it back until I disabled USB. I don't know if I
should be embarrassed, but it took me quite awhile to think of disabling
USB devices to get access to them.

6. All this playing with USB settings in the VPC preferences menu has no
effect on my keyboard or mouse, which have always worked fine, despite the
fact that they, too, are USB devices.

What is most puzzling to me about all this is the inconsistency. Why am I
*sometimes* able to print, even with USB enabled (again, excuse the
cognitive dissonance)? In a sense, now that I've found the secret to
getting a print job through the wires, what I have to figure out how to get
past XY3 and DEFAULT.PRN.

Carlo
CarloC@xxxxxxxx