1.9 KiB
Apple II Email and Usenet News Suite
PRINT65.SYSTEM
PRINT65.SYSTEM is a utility for printing to a network-connected printer using the Hewlett Packard Jetdirect protocol. It requires an Uthernet-II ethernet card and will not work with other interfaces without modification, because it uses the W5100 hardware TCP/IP stack.
Before running PRINT65.SYSTEM for the first time, use EDIT.SYSTEM to create a configuration file called PRINT.CFG. This file consists of a single line specifying the IP address of the network printer to use, optionally followed by a colon and a port number. If the port number is omitted it defaults to 9100. For example:
192.168.10.4:9100
PRINT65.SYSTEM performs the following tasks:
- If no filename was provided on the command line, prompt for the filename to print
- Detect Uthernet-II
- Obtain IP address using DHCP
- Connect to Jetdirect printer
- Open file
- Send file contents to printer over TCP/IP
- Close file
- Disconnect
Using Command Line Argument to Specify the File to Print
PRINT65.SYSTEM supports command line arguments in a way that is compatible with the Davex shell (and possibily other environments.) In Davex you can print a file as follows:
print65.system /path/to/my/file
HP Jetdirect
Most HP printers support Jetdirect. I am using an HP Photosmart 7520 which supports the Jetdirect protocol on port 9100 over it's wifi connection. Jetdirect defaults to a simple plain text mode, which we exploit here to print in 80 column text mode.