★ APPLICATIONS ★ COMMUNICATION/TELEMATIQUE ★ COMP-U-PRINT|Popular Computing Weekly) ★ |
| Comp-U-Print | Applications Communication/telematique |
Comp-U-Print saves time and money Comp-U-Print from Nabitchi is what might be called an “interface free” add-on for your Amstrad PCW. Tony Kendle reports on why it is useful and valuable. Amstrad have tried to sell the PCW as a realistic alternative to an ordinary electric typewriter. No one can say that it is been unsuccessful at doing this, but when the machine was first released there were two common criticisms. Firstly many doubted the longevity of the keyboard; time has revealed it to be remarkably robust but the letters are rapidly disappearing off of mine and I am now waiting for Saga or someone to come out with a replacement. Secondly the print quality, whilst adequate for most people, wasn't good enough to halt the market in ‘top quality daisy wheel' add ons. Unfortunately not only is a good second printer costly enough, but to use it has required forking out £65 for the official Amstrad CPS8256 Centronics/RS232 interface card. I suppose that Nabitchi's new product for the PCW should be called ‘interface free'. It's a combination of special cable and software that allows the printout from any CP/M program to be redirected to a Centronics interface printer, all at a bargain price of £25. This is particularly good news for those micro users who already had a very good printer at home when they bought a PCW. The only people who won't see this as exceptional value for money will be those who have an RS232 interface printer, or who wish to use their PCW with a modem or some similar communications set up that has to have a serial output system. The Nabitchi cable itself looks unexciting. At one end is the Centronics plug, at the other is the normal plastic PCW printer plug. The design is robust and looks as if it will withstand a great deal of daily wear and tear. Unfortunately there are no guiding slots on the plug at the PCW end and, if you ignore the colour coded ribbon that has a blue strip at the top, it is possible to plug it in upside down. This does no damage, but can be very worrying until you figure it all out, as the machine no longer works. Once all of the appropriate plugs have been inserted you just run a small installation utility and all LST: output will be directed to your second printer (LST is CP/M-speak for the printer). This installation is completely ‘transparent' to all other CP/M programs and doesn't use any essential memory. By calling the Comp-U-Print program from a PROFILE.SUB file on your CP/M work disc you can make the installation automatic every time you boot up the computer. If you use this system it is important that the utility is not booted up whilst the ordinary PCW printer is connected - again no real harm will be done and the Extra Ptr screen dumps still work but it doesn't print ordinary text and even can crash your program if you try. Most people will probably still want to use the built-in printer for graphics output and the second machine for high quality text only. However, if you have broken the PCW printer, or are concerned with more speed or a wide carriage you may be after a reasonably cheap dot matrix machine. Some programs on the PCW tend to assume, rather shortsightedly, that you are using the supplied printer. If your favourite program has no obvious system for choosing or creating printer ‘drivers' you may want to choose an Epson dot matrix type to get the full range of print effects. This is particularly true when trying to use the program to get screen dumps or other graphics images from programs such as Polyprint. Of course most word processors and business software will provide full printer customisation options. The above comments of course apply to any second printer, whether it is connected via the Comp-U-Print cable or the CPS8256; they in no way reflect on the quality of Nabitchi's package. When using a second machine the computer will, of course, recognise that the PCW printer is not connected when CP/M boots up. The PTR menu will, therefore, always read ‘No Printer' and control of line feeds etc, will have to be done through the new printer's front panel buttons. This is really no more of a hardship than you would have with any other microprinter combination. It is also impossible to trigger screen dumps on a second printer using the Extra Ptr keys. If no printer is connected at all when the Comp-U-Print program is installed the software ensures that the computer still thinks that there is and sends any LST output into space. This can be confusing but it is harmless and is probably the best option Nabitchi could have come up with - some programs, including Mallard Basic, drop out into CP/M if a ‘no printer' error message comes up when connected to the CPS8256 and this could lose you hours of work. I tested Comp-U-Print with many CP/M utilities and a Juki 6100 daisywheel printer and it worked well with all of them. Unfortunately Locoscript is not a CP/M program and it refuses to recognise a second printer even when connected to the CPS8256. Locoscript 2 does promise to overcome this problem. However, on the way from Nabitchi is a greatly expanded version of the Comp-U-Print software, called Loca-printer, that lets the same cable be used from within Locoscript. Of course this combination is again is a much cheaper alternative than buying Locoscript 2 plus a CPS8256. Loca-printer promises many other great things such as a pop up calculator for use with Locoscript, the ability to define fonts for use on screen and on the printer, and a way of jumping into CP/M without losing the contents of the M drive. A full review will follow when the program is finalised. Nabitchi is also planning a ‘switchable' cable, with appropriate changes to the software, that will allow the user to change between the PCW hardware and the second printer without having to re-boot. Comp-U-Print is an excellent add-on for the PCW. It works well, fulfills a valuable role and saves the user a tidy packet in the process.
|
