🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <20200051@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu> beaucham@uxh.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>For several weeks we used a LaserWriter II NT successfully with Word Perfect 
>on an IBM AT in coexistence with various applications on a Mac SE as follows:
	[ picture deleted ]
>Then, after we down-loaded fonts from another IBM program (ChiWriter),  
>Word Perfect lost its ability to print on the Laserwriter.

>Can someone tell me why this has happened and what can be done to rectify
>the program?  I would appreciate any ideas.

If ChiWriter is the program I think I remember, the problem is that it has
reconfigured your serial port (to 9600, 8 bits, no parity if I remember right.)
Our attitude to ChiWriter is simple---we don't let it anywhere NEAR any of
our PostScript printers. Practise Safe Computing: keep ChiWriter in a bag.
In the world of fascist PostScript, ChiWriter outdoes even MS Word. It also
rewrites your (limited write cycle) EEROM every time you run it, which is
another reason to toss it.

How to fix:
1) connect a terminal to the serial port of your LW, play with the speed and
parity settings until the mystic sequence
executive<CR>
(That is executive in lowercase, followed by a carriage return) provokes
some response. The command will not be echoed as you type it in, do not
be alarmed by this.
2) type the following PostScript program
serverdict begin 0 exitserver
statusdict begin 25 9600 2 setsccbatch
end
quit

The value 2 sets 7 bits, even parity, use 0,1,2,3 for space,odd,even,mark resp.
The value is actually a bitfield made up as follows
[6:1](stop bits: 0,1=1,2)
[5:2](width: 0,1=7,8)
[3:2](flow control: 0,1,2=Xon/Xoff,DTR,ETX/ACK)
[1:2](parity: as above)

3) dump ChiWriter, or at least keep it away from your printer, 'cause if
anyone ever prints using it again, the system will die once more.

DISCLAIMER: I am going by what I remember from encountering this problem
over a year ago, the symptoms sound familiar but I could well have got
things wrong, including the offending/offensive program's name. If I have
unjustly maligned ChiWriter I apologise in advance.

--
Michael Newbery<newbery@rata.vuw.ac.nz> (...!uunet!vuwcomp!newbery if you must)
"It is unnecessary to state that..."