🚀 go-pugleaf

Alright... time to put in my 2 cents worth.

There are two ways to drive an Apple LaserWriter from a PC.

1) through any comm cable via null modem with Xon/Xoff. 8 bits no parity at
9600 baud. This is the factory default setting on the 9600 setting on the
apple laserWriter. Use a spooler like AST superspl to handle the Xon/Xoff
if your software won't do it. (There are PD versions for XOn/Xoff but I don't
have any, contributions please...)

2) Use DTR signals (this is the best cause in the Xon/Xoff mode sometimes the
Apple LaserWriter gets confused and forgets to Xon!) via tha cable as
below (from some program I got...)
IBM   ALW
1      1
2      3
3      2
4      5
5      4
6     20 
7      7
20     6
 BUT the catch is that the ALW normally doesn't work with DTR enabled
as it comes from the factory. The way to tell it to do this is to
send it a magic postscript file to set the 25 pin port to DTR enabled.
this is as follows:
serverdict begin
0 exitserver %replace 0 with exitserver password if changed!
statusdict begin
25 9600 4 setsccbatch
end %statusdict

Note that you need not end the serverdict begin because of the exitserver.
The way I send this to the printer is to use a COMM package and talk to the
ALW. First type
executive
and the thing should talk to you if all parity etc match. You are then
talking to an interactive timesharing printer (scarey!). then send the
above program (one line at a time in lower case) and you should
find that it is friendly and talks to you until you type the exitserver
command. Then it no longer is friendly and it doesn't echo so type carefully.
You can really make a mess here if you type something wrong. The best way
is to edit a file with the commands and "send" the file with the COMM package.

To set it back to factory setting use the above with 25 9600 0 setsccbatch

SOme old laserWriters DO NOT support the DTR option. You will get an
error message with 25 9600 x setsccbatch if x is higher than 3!
25 is the port (25 pin connector)
9600 is the baud (19200 works they tell me)
x is the comm parms as follows
0 ignore high order bit of each 8 bit char w/Xon/Xoff
1 odd parity w/Xon/Xoff
2 even parity w/Xon/Xoff
3 No parity all 8 bits are data w/Xon/Xoff
4 as per 0 but DTR
5 as per 1 but DTR
6 as per 2 but DTR
7 as per 3 but DTR

When you really bun out your ALW by typeing things wrong then set the switch to
the 1200 position which is ALWAYS 1200 baud parity ignored Xon/Xoff and correct.

For those of you who really want to get into it get the Addison Wesley Postscript
Language reference manual w/ALW programming info ISBN 0-201-10174-2 AND
the supplement for the Apple LaserWriter and Apple LaserWriter PLUS revision 2
which as far as I know is only from ADOBE SYSTEMS Inc. 

P.S. You can tell if your ALW is revision 2 by looking at the lower left of the
power on test page line graph. Look for a 2.0!

Terry Jones
416-978-4924
utcs!tj   uucp
tj@utoronto  bitnet