Date   : Tue, 23 Nov 1982 23:59:00-EST
From   : Roger L Long <BYTE@Mit-Mc>
Subject: WordStar and the IDS 480 (Micro Prism)

I've recently been trying to configure WordStar for an IDS 480 printer.
As long as I only tell WordStar that it's a dumb tty-like printer,
things work pretty well.  But not satisfied with leaving well enough
alone, I've been trying to configure it so that it makes use of the
proportional spaceing features.  Here's where I get into trouble.

First of all, the escape sequences on the 480 are NOT binary.  For 
instance, the sequence to space over 15/120ths of an inch would be:
       <esc><U><,><1><5><,><$>
In other words, for each character you write on the paper, you end up
sending eight.  Not quite...  make that nine, because the printer has
already spaced past the character it just printed, so you have to send
a backspace, and then the foobar sequence above.  As you might expect,
WordStar driving the IDS in this mode ends up printing slower than a
teletype.

The second half of the problem is the prism's automatic proportional
spacing and justification mode.  In order for this to work, you send
the printer a stream of text without carriage returns, and the printer
decides how and where to split it into lines.  When you finally
send a carriage return, that ends the paragraph.  Try to tell WordStar
how to do that!

Does anyone have any bright ideas?  Another thought might be to redo
the internal printer firmware, so that it accepted the QUME or DIABLO
escape sequences.  Does anyone know what processor lies in the inards
of this beast?  Also what type of prom for the firmware, and also what
kind of prom/character generator for the fonts?  (Obviously I haven't
taken this one apart yet, since it isn't mine, and I'm not that 
desparate...  yet...)

Thanks in advance for any info.

       -roger