>Are you really doing OUTPUT PRINTER, WRITE "HELLO", etc? If these
commands
>are on the same line, you need to use the ; character between commands.
>Also, are quotes set to " or ' ?
>It might need be... OUTPUT PRINTER; WRITE 'HELLO'; NEW; OUTPUT SCREEN
>Also try, from the R> ZIP COMMAND /C DIR *.RB1 > LPT1:
No I wasn't doing that literally. Each command was on a separate line
at the r> prompt.
Directories direct to lpt1 worked fine. I tested that immediately.
The ONLY thing that didn't work was a "write". A "show var" worked, but
not a "write".
However, thanks to Dennis' suggestion, OUTPUT LPT1 would successfuly
print a "write"! That is a change that I can easily do for them. Had
to test that all the other printing commands would also work with an
LPT1, which they did.
> What happens when you try
>OUTPUT printer
>TYPE ascii_file_name
>NEWPAGE
>OUTPUT screen
>from the R> prompt and from a command file.
That worked perfectly fine. That was another option for them is that I
could print everything to a file and then send that to the printer.
Again, I repeat -- absolutely EVERY printing thing that I could think of
worked perfectly fine EXCEPT a "write"! A "write" ONLY would work if
I did an "output lpt1" instead of "output printer".
>However, you might want to look at the printer cable. While I would think
>that all modern cables are bi-directional (all pins enabled), it certainly
>is possible that "cheap" ones are not.
Brent: I actually had another client caught by this problem. They bought
a new printer and since their old cable fit they used it. The printer
would
work sometimes, but not always. Even MS Word was giving strange results.
I happened to ask whether they bought a new cable; when they said no I told
them to give it a try. Prints perfectly now!
Karen
