28 May
2009
28 May
'09
11:48 p.m.
At 05:09 PM 5/28/2009 -0400, you wrote:
In approximately 1980, I read the command set manual for the Diablo 630
(620?) daisy-wheel printer. I noted with interest the command to cause it
to print right-to-left. Hmm, I thought, if it CAN do that, then it SHOULD
do that. So I wrote a driver for VMS for it. I had a little help on the
driver complexities. Darned if analyzing line lengths and figuring out
whether to seek to the left margin or swing out to the right and print
backward wasn't hellacious.
-T
-----
267. [Religion] There's one born again every minute ;-) --gauntlet at bga.com
(Jeff)
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tpeters at nospam.mixcom.com (remove "nospam") N9QQB (amateur radio)
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EN53wc
WAN/LAN/Telcom Analyst, Tech Writer, MCP, CCNA, Registered Linux User 385531
I found "Sometimes computer printers with a
typewriter-like
moving type head print boustrophedon if set up wrongly."
Which old printers might've done that?
Not sure exactly, but:
Epson dot matrix printers used to advertise "logic seeking" and
"bi-directional printing". They reversed the lines internally, but an
older printer with no buffer might expect to be fed lines alternating
forward and reverse, so it could print them in proper order when the
head alternated forward and reverse on successive lines.