#Apple 410 Plotter
9 messages in this thread
Joel, I've recently tried to use the Apple 410 plotter with my Amiga, and I've
encountered several problems. I used info you posted to make up a cable, and I
wrote a simple file containing plotter commands taken from the plotter manual.
When I "Copy file to ser:" everything seems to work ok. Next, I wrote the
plotdriver file for A-size paper given in your CIS file. When I try to plot
from Aegis Draw I run into problems. I inserted an "assign plotdriver:
plotdriver.a" command in my startup-sequence on my bootable Aegis Draw disk
(this disk was made by diskcopying a WB1.2 disk and then transferring the
appropriate Aegis Draw files to this disk). When I choose the "Plot" menu item
I expect a drawplotdump file containing the plotter commands to be created (I
haven't figured out whether I must copy this to ser: from CLI to get it plotted
or whether Aegis Draw makes the file and then sends it to the plotter). About
a minute later I get a "Printer trouble" message of the monitor. Moreover,
when I type out the drawplotdump file, it contains commands which don't
correspond at all to the commands listed in the Apple plotter manual. The file
does seem like the commands are reasonable (things like a PU x,y followed by
four PM x,y commands when I intended to draw a rectangle – just what one would
expect: a move followed by four draw commands) but they are not the commands
the Apple plotter expects (it wants commands like MA x,y and DA x,y for a move
absolute and draw absolute). I have no idea what to try next; it seems that
the Draw pgm is creating a file based on another plotter or something. Do you
have any ideas what I can try? BTW, when I assigned plotdriver: it was not
clear to me what logical device the plotdriver is. I can't seem to find any
references to the plotdriver: other than in another info file someone gave me.
I didn't see any mention of this in your info file so I don't have a very clear
picture of what is going on. My startup-sequence didn't choke on the assign
command so I guess it's legit. Thanks Bill Christens-Barry
Barry:
I am quite interested in the progress of your quest. Can not help much
with the plotter questions but as to the assign..just about anything is legal
if it exists. IE: you don't like to call your disk DF0: and DF1: and you are
an old cpm/msdos user then assign A: DF0: and B: DF1:. The system and its
programs will still use the old names but you can type b:myfile and it will
look for myfile on DF1:.
73s,
bill
You know, there's another thing that has bothered me for a long time about
Amigados. When you ASSIGN something to a drive name ie. 0: DF0:, or CD to a
disk, you are actually setting up the name of the disk that's in the drive. Now
this has its uses, but I dearly wish I could assign or CD with reference to the
device instead sometimes, perhaps with a command line switch.
Regards, Larry.
Larry:
That one characteristic has had me so mad on occassion that I had to
get up and leave the machine alone for awaile! Prior to using the shell I
wrote a command file: 'cd df1:', 'dir'. Both philosophies have there merit and
this is one time that I feel that CBM went the right way. It is real easy to
work around it but it would be more complex to get the system to request a
specific disk if it only 'cded' to a drive.
73s,
bill
RIght you are Bill. I guess I need it often enough that a command line switch
would do the job quite well.
Regards, Larry.
Bill,
Thanks for the info about logical devices. I'm still not clear on this
topic 'tho. Are logical devices pre-existing things or are they just names
that can be assigned to whatever device you like. In other words, in the
assignment "assign plotdriver: plotdriver.a" which I used to assign the
plotfile "plotdriver.a" what conditions must be satisfied by "plotdriver"? I
know that many logical devices already exist under AmigaDOS (ram:, con:, etc.),
but where did they come from? HOw are they supported? WHen I make reference
to them AmigaDOS seems to know what I am talking about. Is there a similar
device plotdriver: which AmigaDOS knows how to deal with? I'm in the dark.
The Apple 410 plotter I bought from Calif. Digital seems to work great,
altho I'm still not able to drive it from Aegis Draw. I'll let you know how
things progress.
Bill C-B
Bill:
Plotdriver: did not exist until you created it with the 'assign'
command. Plotdriver must use legal characters in its name. You should be very
careful about reassigning one of the 'built in' names. I believe that 'con:'
and 'ram:' are unique in the system in that they do not have distinct
replaceable drivers. Contrast with 'ser:', 'par:' 'prt:'.
The system has several 'built in' logical devices as you mentioned. The
'assign' command allows you to add to the list. When you type 'assign' without
arguments you will get a list of the current assignments that the system
recognizes. The term 'logical device' may not be official CBM, I call them
that because many other computer companies have called them 'logical devices'
for years (most notably DEC). These 'logical devices' or if you prefer
'logical assignments' can be extreamly useful. If you caught MSS's reply to
another thread, they were able to let you set up Scribble! in just about any
manner that you might desire by making logical assignment for 'DICT:' and
'UDICT:' which are the devices that scribble will use to try to find the
dictionaries. When routinely working with a file it is often handy to make an
assignment like 'assign work: myfile'. That way 'myfile' can be a fully
descriptive name and yet while working on it you only have to type 'work:'.
Command files that execute complex operations can be made much more versatile
(which usually means you don't need as many) if they use assigned devices (you
can just change the assignment and the file will work on something else).
Please do! A plotter is one of the 'toys' that I hope to pickup
sometime this year. 73s,
bill
Hi Bill-Barry. I think your problem is quite simple – Aegis Draw does _not_
use any assignment such as PLOTDRIVER: or any other to figure out what plotter
driver to use.
The early version of Aegis Draw used a single file in the root directory called
Plotdriver, which contained your custom plotter driver file if any. Note that
this is a FILENAME not a device – so I don't think that assigning a Plotdriver:
device would accomplish anything for you there. But read on…
The 1.1 version of Draw is more flexible than this. (I would assume that you
have that version through upgrade or original purchase if you are on Aegis'
registration list). Anyhow, it uses a whole directory of driver files on the
Draw disk. The directory is called "Plotters" and contains any and all driver
files you want to have. It is accessed from WITHIN the program by choosing the
"Pick Plotter" option from the Project menu. This will bring up a requester
with all the available plotter drivers, and you pick one to use. THEN choose
the "Plot" option and everything should work fine. It always creates the
"Drawplotdump" file and then sends it to the PRT: device (if there is enough
free memory to run the task). Therefore, in Draw 1.1, you can have both the
"Apple A Size" and "Apple B Size" drivers ready and waiting in the Plotters
directory.
NOTE that since the PRT: device is used for the plotter, you must set your
preferences for "generic" printer and serial communications. Also be sure to
set the serial device to the same baud rate as your plotter, same for
stop/start bits etc., and activate RTS/CTS handshaking. Follow all the other
advice in my help file and you will be successful.
Your plot dump file is coming out with PU, PD etc. because you didn't pick your
plotter first, and Draw is using the default (HPGL) plotter language.
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..(CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS MESSAGE)
Again, I think that all the discussion on assigning logical devices is
peripheral in your case, because Aegis Draw simply doesn't use such a device
name. You can indeed assign any NAME: you wish to any device or directory you
wish, and AmigaDOS will handle it for you, but only if you or a program
specifically requests to talk to the NAME: (which is not happening in this
case). Lastly, I don't _think_ it ever makes sense to assign a NAME: to an
actual filename. Although this works in limited ways, the Assign command is
meant to refer to devices and/or directories.
Hope this all helped. Let me know if you have any further problems.
Joel Halbert