AppleShare PC And Lotus Printing Problem: Use Freelance Plus



Configuration
-------------

- Lotus version 2.0.1 (with the Lotus Value Pack, which provides PostScript
printer support. Before this, PostScript was not supported.)

- DOS versions 4.0 and 3.2 and Compaq 3.3. The problem is the same with
all versions.

- AppleShare PC 2.0 with LocalTalk

- LaserWriter Driver 6.0 on LaserWriter IINTX

- Impress, which allows Lotus users to combine text and graphics on the
same page. It has its own printer drivers.

Problem
-------

When I am sending jobs to the printer, there is some communication going on
between the PC and the LaserWriter. The PC is flashing the wait message, and
the green light on the LaserWriter is flashing, but eventually the PC displays
a "system error" and needs to be restarted.

We tested the problem you described and also got an error when trying to print
to the LaserWriter IINTX. Using a LocalTalk packet Peek program, we could not
find any PostScript code in the packets sent to the printer. We double-checked
our installation of the PostScript drivers, and still got no PostScript code
output from Lotus.

While verifying the installation, we found something that describes the above
behavior: the Lotus Value Pack uses CONFIG.SYS to support PostScript. To use
the PostScript drivers, you must install the DOS device driver, LOTUSPS.SYS, in
the CONFIG.SYS file. To do this, Lotus has to intercept interrupt 17, which is
used by MS-DOS for printing.

Since AppleShare PC is loaded after CONFIG.SYS, and it also intercept interrupt
17 to direct printing traffic over the AppleTalk network, AppleShare PC claims
ownership of interrupt 17. Therefore, when you print from Lotus, AppleShare PC
gets the data and sends it over the network to the printer because it assumes
the data is in PostScript, and the Lotus device driver in CONFIG.SYS does not
have a chance to convert it to PostScript.

The new version of Freelance Plus from Lotus -- which is smaller memory-wise
and runs on all of the machines -- comes with a PostScript driver that not only
works across the AppleTalk network, but can open and print the Lotus Printgraph
files.

As you know, you can also use a Lotus "add-on" package, such as Allways or
Impress, as a workaround.


Published Date: Feb 18, 2012