re: Re: xx-DOS (im)possible problem!

Hi Alain,
WHY does your Clipper software test that? If you are using networked
printer drivers, you should take care to use a driver that correctly
returns printer status 0x90 exactly IF the network printer is in some
useful status.

Of course it is no problem to write a TSR that just pretends that the
printer is in correct status. Such a TSR will of course have the side
effect that it will override the status that a locally attached printer
at the affected port would return.

But I understand that you
- have no printer locally attached
- use a network driver for LPT1

Did you try connecting a local printer to make Clipper happy while
still using the network printer driver? Then the network printer
driver lacks a good BIOS simulation. However, if this is enough for
Clipper, you can, as said, just use a simple TSR to fake the 0x90 status.
(Instead of connecting a local printer)

What would you prefer?
- using a better network printing driver (the one of Win98 is better
  than the one of plain Dos, as far as I understand your mail :-)).
- attaching a local printer to make Clipper happy
- attaching a dummy printer dongle that just connects the ACK pin to the
  right level
- installing a tiny "fake status" TSR (I can write one in "no time" if you
  need one)
???

Eric