[Coco] Printing from the Color Computer

[Aaron Wolfe]

On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 3:45 PM, Brian G <briang0671 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> Is it possible to print from any of the Color Computers but specifically
> the 3?
> Is it possible to connect through Drivewire and a micro controller to
> print.
>

Yes, the DW protocol supports printing and a simple implementation in a
micro controller is certainly possible (although probably not worth the
effort, as I'll explain farther down :)


> Will it be plain text (ASCII) or can output from Simply Better, the Owl
> Ware Window Writer or any of the word processing/ formatting programs work?
>


The DW4 server for Win/Mac/Linux/etc has two modes.

In plain text mode, you'll get byte for byte what is sent to the printer
device in a file.  If that file contains something other than plain text
(like printer control codes, etc) then you will need to use some tool that
understands this or pass the bytes to some device that understands them.

In emulated Epson mode, the bytes are interpreted by a virtual Epson FX80.
 Rather than a file of bytes, the result is one or more image file(s)
containing the rendered output.  These images will look similar to what
you'd get if you had an actual epson dot matrix printer, for example:

https://73c6ca03-a-62cb3a1a-s-sites.googlegroups.com/site/drivewire4/home/gallery/dw_print_8740950685715172345.png

The system is actually designed to support any number of printer emulations
(the DMP from Tandy would be nice) but lacking time and volunteers we have
only the Epson emulation at the moment.


> Can we do printing without the large CPU, large memory, big power supply
> computers?
>
>
Absolutely.  The Rasperry Pi runs DriveWire 4 very well and uses only a
tiny bit of power and space (and $).  Since it's as small as most
microprocess boards and has similar power consumption its a great choice
and much easier, not to mention much more powerful.  It has a full linux
distro so should work with nearly any modern printer just fine if you want
to go all the way to paper.

Along those lines, Gene Heskett has developed a script that is invoked by
DW after a print job and manages the linux print process to create paper
output automatically.  I believe he is willing to share.


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