graphics dump and the XEP80

From: Michael Current (aj848@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 07/03/91-01:39:27 AM Z


From: aj848@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
Subject: graphics dump and the XEP80
Date: Wed Jul  3 01:39:27 1991


     This spring for my Computational Physics class special project I did some
programming and some graphing on my 130XE.  Since a poster presentation was
required, I needed some hard-copies of the graphs I produced.  Simple, right? 
Not in this case.  My Epson LX-810 is about as standard of a 9-pin dot-matrix
printer you can have, but my lone printer interface is the XEP80 Interface
Module.  This in itself can be annoying because I can't print anything unless I
have that xep80han.com file loaded.  Most of my printing I do from AtariWriter
80, so I already have the handler loaded.  But now I had to load the handler,
then use a special BASIC XIO command to return to the Antic display so I could
print through the interface at the same time as I had a gr.8 screen displayed. 
A plea to comp.sys.atari.8bit on Usenet resulted in a couple different codings
in BASIC for dumping a gr.8 screen to the printer.  But they each froze the
computer before the printing began!  After many frustrating re-boots of the
system I learned that once the XEP80 handler is loaded, the act of entering any
graphics mode of 6 or higher will cause a system lock-up.  Problem identified.
   
     I had two choices.  One was to get a normal printer interface like
the ICD P:R: Connection, so I could print any time I want to.  I may get
around to doing that someday.  But with the presentation date fast approaching,
I found a good work-around.  Instead of dumping right to the printer, I
adjusted the BASIC code I had to print to a data file instead.  So I could run
my program, save the graph to a file, go to DOS, load the XEP80 handler, then
copy the data file from disk to printer.  A convoluted but effective graphics
screen dump.  Project saved.  
-- 
Michael Current   '93                 Internet:  currentm@carleton.edu         
Carleton College            Cleveland Free-Net:                  aj848 
Northfield, MN 55057                 telephone:         (507) 663-5181


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