Who Else Would Like to See an Open Source Printer Emulator for the Atari?

[+DrVenkman]

I think, you already did. The PCLINK feature should be in R3. The OSX version, I downloaded from the Github page (your build, I think), clearly states, that it ignores the PCLINK commands.

This indicates, that RespeQt R3 knows of PCLINK.

 

 

Well I don't know then; like I said, I don't use PCLINK so I don't know why it does or doesn't work on any specific platforms. I just download and build the code.

 

Speaking of, here's how I do it. This presumes you have both Qt Creator and OS X/macOS Xcode installed:

1. Download the RespeQt source code and stick it where you want. I use the Desktop
2. Open respeqt.pro in Qt Creator
3. Configure the project in the opening dialogue if this is the first time you've built it; otherwise go to Step 4.
​4. On the Build menu, click Build project "respeqt" 
5. Once the build is complete open a Terminal window and navigate to the Qt directory. In my case it's my home directory, so 
 cd ~/Qt-static
6. Navigate to the directory that contains the deployment tool:
cd 5.5/clang_64/bin/
5. Now you have to know the path to the application bundle you built in step 4. Once you know that, you need that path for the deployment tool. So, run the tool as follows:
./macdeployqt  ~/Desktop/build-respeqt-Desktop_Qt_5_5_0_clang_64bit-Debug/RespeQt.app
6. That'll take a minute or two depending on the speed of your system, but suddenly your 1.7 megabyte app balloons to 25+ megabytes, and voila. You should have a portable app that carries the OS X frameworks with it necessary to use the app on Macs without the Qt libraries installed. 
7. Manually copy every folder which begins with a $ character from the source directory into the application bundle and voila. Done.

I haven't figured out how to deploy the app from within Qt Creator and the documentation sucks, so the Terminal commands are how I do it. Similarly, I don't know enough about Qt or C++ coding to have the OS X branch copy those folders into into the application bundle (step 7 above), but copying them manually works.

 

Further discussion should probably be in the RespeQt forum.

[TheMontezuma]

I think, you already did. The PCLINK feature should be in R3. The OSX version, I downloaded from the Github page (your build, I think), clearly states, that it ignores the PCLINK commands.

This indicates, that RespeQt R3 knows of PCLINK.

 

R3 has no support for PCLINK. The PCLINK code is in Github, but it was not yet released.

[JoSch]

Ok, I remember you writing about pull request being accepted for R3.

Perhaps, I have missunderstood that.

So, the PCLINK code is in some branch?

[JoSch]

7. Manually copy every folder which begins with a $ character from the source directory into the application bundle and voila. Done.

Where in the application bundle should the $ directories go?

[+DrVenkman]

Where in the application bundle should the $ directories go?

 

 

RespeQt.app/Contents/MacOS

[pusakat]

This might be useful code to have if someone gets around to doing an open source printer emulator. Although it converts ESC/P2 to PDF, it will probably have enough information to clue together for a virtual printer. https://github.com/RWAP/PrinterToPDF/

[JoSch]

Thanks for the hint, I will look at that for the RespeQt printer emulation.

[zzip]

This might be useful code to have if someone gets around to doing an open source printer emulator. Although it converts ESC/P2 to PDF, it will probably have enough information to clue together for a virtual printer. https://github.com/RWAP/PrinterToPDF/

I get a 404 error on that page

[zzip]

When I read this topic, I thought surely the workhorses Ghostscript or Imagemagick would be able to convert an Epson esc/p stream to a more usable format. I checked and nope! I'm shocked that there is so little open-source software to do this after 30 years.

[pusakat]

Trying to find epson2ps or similar. Was in netpbm before, but hard to track using phone. Will try again later when at a terminal.

 

Sent from my Lenovo A536 using Tapatalk

[Madi]

I get a 404 error on that page

https://github.com/RWAP/PrinterToPDF/

[Starman]

As someone who's written printer drivers and virtual printers before, I'll chime in.

 

This isn't tough to do. I wanted to do it myself, but I couldn't find a way to dump printer output either via emulation or hardware. But then I saw that the Atari 800 emulator for the Mac has output-to-PDF anyway, so there was no point.

[_The Doctor__]

um because windows and linux could use the function... or maybe a stand alone device directly connected to the Atari takes all the other computers out of the loop?

[TangentAudio]

um because windows and linux could use the function... or maybe a stand alone device directly connected to the Atari takes all the other computers out of the loop?

 

I'm still hoping to integrate some form of printing into the R:Fi project, though I don't know exactly what form it will take. (I guess that might make it a P:R:Fi .. or D:P:R:Fi once it has disk capability... Need a better name.)

[_The Doctor__]

The Atari Alphabet Box (AAB) has got you covered from A to Z!

[Starman]

um because windows and linux could use the function... or maybe a stand alone device directly connected to the Atari takes all the other computers out of the loop?

 

The source has been available for years. Anyone could have grabbed the source and ported it.

 

http://www.atarimac.com/downloads.php

 

And as stated above, people have made an Epson-to-bitmap project.

 

As for a standalone, that's a whole different animal.

 

I asked about this about a month or so ago so it seems like there wasn't much interest in it in the first place.

[Brentarian]

I've been watching this for several years, but they sure are slow at completing it. http://www.retroprinter.com/

[_The Doctor__]

plenty of interest... the forum members come and go on monthly multi monthly basis

 

 

last time they did something on that site was late 2015

Edited May 17, 2017 by _The Doctor__

[Starman]

What are the current ways to capture printer data from the 8-bits, either through emulation or hardware?

 

The Atari800X can give you a virtual printer, but I don't know if it'll give you the raw data, including any bidi communication (if any).

 

I have an SIO2PC, but isn't that for the floppy drives only?

[+MrFish]

I have an SIO2PC, but isn't that for the floppy drives only?

 

It's for whatever the software wants to do with the data that it carries.

Edited May 18, 2017 by MrFish

[+DrVenkman]

What are the current ways to capture printer data from the 8-bits, either through emulation or hardware?

 

The Atari800X can give you a virtual printer, but I don't know if it'll give you the raw data, including any bidi communication (if any).

 

I have an SIO2PC, but isn't that for the floppy drives only?

Most SIO emulation software running on your modern device can at least capture plain text data from the P: device and dump it to a window. Some even display it in an Atari-like TrueType font.

[Starman]

How are fonts handled in this situation? You can parse the ESC/P file, but you still need the proper fonts. Doesn't that get messy with licensing?

[pusakat]

Trying to find epson2ps or similar. Was in netpbm before, but hard to track using phone. Will try again later when at a terminal.

 

Sent from my Lenovo A536 using Tapatalk

 

led to a dead end. best i could find was pbmtoepson but no epsontopbm.

[Irgendwer]

What are the current ways to capture printer data from the 8-bits, either through emulation or hardware?

 

"I do it my way...":

 

 

 

BTW: My offer

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/224375-emulator-dot-matrix-printing/?do=findComment&comment=2972554

still stands...

[Starman]

Last night I started working on an ESC/P to BMP project. Wrote the thing in about two hours, at least something that handles Print Shop. I'm just trying to figure out if it's something worth working on because there's the Retroprinter project, Atari800MacX already does ESC/P->PDF, and there's APE. So who exactly would another project benefit? The Altirra project can pull the Retroprinter open source and use that if they really wanted to. I don't want to reinvent the wheel.

 

EDIT: And then there's the font issue, both the fonts themselves and rendering them.

Edited May 20, 2017 by Starman