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- NECPRTSC by Dan O'Brien
- (version 1.2)
-
- NECPRTSC.COM is a driver that allows the NEC 8023
- dot matrix printer to print the Shft-PrtSc screen
- print sequence. Without this driver the NEC prints
- the entire screen on a single line. (This, no doubt,
- saves paper, but is not very useful.)
-
- The default print mode for the NEC is called logic
- seeking mode where the data is queued in its
- internal 2k buffer. (This mode prints output very
- fast.) In this mode, the printer requires a carriage
- return followed by a line feed to signal that a new
- line is required in the output text. Unfortunetly,
- the IBM ROM BIOS for screen print sends a line feed
- followed by a carriage return sequence. Thus, the NEC
- fails to skip to a new line. Therefore, this driver was
- written.
-
- NECPRTSC is based on the IBM ROM BIOS for screen
- print (INT 5). (See Tech. Ref. A-79) It is nearly an
- exact copy, except for the CR-LF sequence instead of LF-CR.
- The ROM was disassembled using DEBUG with the output
- redirected to a file using this DOS 2.0 feature.
- To use the driver, issue NECPRTSC in your autoexec.bat
- file, once. NECPRTSC will set up the INT 5 vector and then
- attach itself as part of DOS. It produces no messages.
- The only way to detect its presents is to issue Shft-PrtSc
- and watch it work. Try it before you put it in your AUTOEXEC.BAT
- to make sure it works.
-
- A new feature of NECPRTSC (version 1.2) is that it translates
- the screen characters, where possible, into equivalent or
- nearly equivalent NEC 8023 characters. Thus, you will see on
- the printed page a close approximation of the screen.
-
- Comments and suggestions are welcome. They may be
- left on the PCmodem BBS (Gene Plantz') at 312 259-8086.
- Leave messages for DAN OBRIEN (no apostrophe). Have fun.
-