Jim Lux wrote:
> The real problem with using the printer port these days is that
> a) You're pretty well insulated from the hardware using Windows, so you
> have to do all sorts of workarounds to talk to the bits. You can set up a
> plain printer, and talk to it as if it were a dumb printer, but you don't
> have any control over strobing, timing, or the ability to readback the
> port. Yes, there are a raft of programs and windows drivers that get
> around this, but since they violate a fundamental part of the design of
> Windows (i.e. insulate user programs from the hardware), they tend to be
> "picky" in their functioning.
>
Agreed. Alas, MS decided a long time ago that their operating systems
should be designed with "Mom and Pop" in mind rather than power users
and developers.
> b) More and more computers are doing away with the printer port. It's
> physically a large connector, consumes board space, etc. and most consumer
> (read inexpensive) printers are USB using the PC as a computational host
> for a lot of the printer function anyway. When you're selling millions of
> motherboards at $50 each, wholesale, getting rid of a 50 cent connector is
> very attractive.
I haven't seen a mobo manufacturer come out with a product without a
IEEE 1284 port yet.They won't be getting rid of the parallel port
anytime soon. They are starting to cut out the RS-232 ports.
Yes, you see a lot of mobos from the manufacturers with multiple USB
port configurations, the machine I just built has 8, but the current USB
spec has some serious limitations. The 5m segment length limitation
being the most notable.
--
R. Kevin Stover ACØH
K2/100 #4684
Reclaim Your Inbox!
http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird
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