MSCRIPT/OLIGER PRINTER PORT COMPATABILITY
I have a JLO parallel printer port which does not read the printer’s PAPER EMPTY status bit. This is the signal present on the printer Centronics connector pin 12 and is required by MSCRIPT‘s AERCO compatable printer driver software as status bit 1.
My printer asserts BUSY along with PAPER EMPTY. BUSY is read by the unmodified JLO port so all is well if you can get the software past the PAPER EMPTY status check.
In the version of MSCRIPT that I have, the PAPER EMPTY status is read by machine code at 36045 – 36047.Simply poke 0’s to those memory locations and the unmodified JLO port works as though it had the hadrware modification (remember, the mod. only simulates a paper not-empty status). The removed code is:
36045 - 203 36046 - 79 36047 - 192
If this code does not appear at these addresses in your version, you’ll have to go exploring. The next four bytes are 203, 103 , 32, and 247. That should make the search a little easier.
Tyd-Byte Stuff from the desk of Kent Cook