4 Jun
2010
4 Jun
'10
1:51 p.m.
On Fri, 4 Jun 2010, Tony Duell wrote:
Also Cordata/Corona Data Systems, Eiconscript, and Jlaser
I used a DC37 switch box.
Tall Tree Systems (Jlaser, JRAM, etc.) sold an adapter to connect to SX
printer engines!
Their pre-LIM EMS was one of the early ones. At 4th? WCCF (West Coast
Computer Faire) Henderson? was frantically trying to get people to write
software, ANY software, that would need large amounts of RAM.
Cordata's software refused to run on 286 or above.
Poems font editor supported Cordata fonts, and HP PCL
Maybe some year, I'll move the XenoCopy documentation (LOTS of embedded
formatting codes) over to something that survived for a while.
Eiconscript had Postscript and HP PCL emulation.
Eicon's tech "support" was generous, but hilarious.
"Here's a new version of the PCL emulator; no idea whether this one
works."
Should I try to find/dig out any of those boards?
Or should they rust in pieces?
No, but some 25 years ago I went into a local computer
shop to attempt to
buy a serial cable to link my TRS-80 model 1 (with EI and RS232 board) to
a newly obtained Sanders 12/7 printer. They told me it was impossible to
link those 2 devices together, and tried to sell me another printer. I
just walked to the electronics shop nearby, bought a couple of connectors
and a length of cable and wired it myself...
Yeah. My first printer on TRS80 was a
DTC300 (Hytype I daisy wheel). It
took a LONG time to work out a printer cable (my first computer cabling
attempt).
Later, TRS232 came out with a trivial to use serial printer interface that
ran off of the cassette port! GPA made a similar one that plugged into
the expansion port.
How about CX
toner cartridges?
Alas (for those of us with CX engined printers which can't be
replaced by
anything more modern [1]), they haven't been made for many years.
[1] Such as the CX-VDO, the one with the direct interface to the print
engine and no formatter board. It's used on the PERQ, Atari ST (?), Acorn
Archimedes. etc.