Using Macintosh peripheral devices in the PC environment
You use the serial ports of your Macintosh just like the serial ports of any PC-compatible computer.
The maximum data transfer rate supported by the DOS-compatible hardware when a COM port is mapped to a Macintosh serial port is 19,200 bits per second (bps). If you’re capturing serial output to a Mac OS text file, there is no limit.
For more information about serial ports, see “Configuring the PC Serial
Ports” in Chapter 6.
Using printers
For DOS or Windows printing, use the LPT1.DOS or LPT1 serial port. In general, you must use printers that are Macintosh-compatible, and you must use their corresponding Macintosh printer extensions. However, in a PC Novell NetWare environment you can print to a PC-compatible printer attached to a Novell network. See Appendix E, “Installing Network Management Software.”
DOS uses the printer selected in the Macintosh Chooser as the default LPT1 device. If you have a serial printer directly connected to a COM port, however, DOS uses that printer instead.
The DOS-compatible software can process output for Epson and PostScript™ printers, and for all printers that use Hewlett-Packard’s page control language (PCL).
If a printer is not a PostScript or PCL printer, it’s considered to be a QuickDraw printer. QuickDraw printers such as the Apple StyleWriter or ImageWriter work only with Epson emulation. For non-PostScript PCL printers, use the appropriate PCL driver in the PC environment. For non- PostScript, non-PCL printers, configure your DOS application program to use the Epson LQ-2500 driver. If this driver isn’t available, try another Epson LQ or LX series driver. Be sure to turn on the PCL option if it’s available for your printer.
