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Apple II
Technical Notes
_____________________________________________________________________________
Developer Technical Support
AppleTalk
#4: Printing Through the Firmware
Revised by: Jim Luther September 1990
Written by: Matt Deatherage & Jim Luther July 1989
This Technical Note discusses considerations of printing through the
AppleTalk Remote Print Manager (RPM) interface from ProDOS 8 applications.
Changes since March 1990: Revised code sample to simplify finding the
transparent network printing slot with the ROM 03 Apple IIgs. Please note
that the method of finding the transparent network printing slot shown in the
March 1990 revision of this Note does work correctly, the new method is just
simpler. In addition, revised the wording of the Note to clarify that
transparent network printing is the RPM interface.
_____________________________________________________________________________
The AppleShare Programmer's Guide to the Apple IIgs stated that the Remote
Print Manager (RPM) interface allowed transparent network printing through
Super Serial Card entry points in slot 7. This statement is pretty short-
sighted. It's much like saying printing to an ImageWriter II is initiated
when you do a PR#1 command--it's only true if what you want is where you think
it is--and usually it isn't.
Note: The AppleShare Programmer's Guide to the Apple IIgs has been
superseded by the AppleShare Programmer's Guide to the Apple II
Family.
An Apple IIe Workstation Card, although recommended for slot 7, can work in
almost any slot (just like an ImageWriter II with a Super Serial Card can be
connected to nearly any slot, except maybe slot 3 when the 80-column firmware
is active). An Apple IIgs with ROM versions 00 or 01 may only have the
firmware used by the RPM interface in slot 7. An Apple IIgs with ROM version
03 may only have the firmware used by the RPM interface in either slot 1 or 2.
Before printing through the RPM interface slot, take the same precautions you
would take before printing to any slot--check to make sure you see the
requested slot is a Pascal device before using Pascal entry points, and try to
look for the signature bytes that indicate the features you want are present.
In general, avoid hard-coding slot numbers for anything.
ProDOS 8 applications which offer network printing through the RPM interface
should give users the choice of printing to any of the seven slots as well as
the Network Printer. When Network Printer is selected, the application can
find the slot used by the RPM interface by using the 6502 code sample included
in this Note. Allowing the selection of Network Printer is especially
important for applications that keep a configuration file containing a user's
default printer setup. If an application keeps only the slot number in the
configuration file, users may need to change the printer selection often if
they print from several different machines.
Warning: Printing to a slot with no firmware generally results in a crash.
The code sample uses two methods to determine the slot the RPM interface is
using. The first method works with the Apple IIe Workstation card and the ROM
01 Apple IIgs. It looks at the AppleTalk completion routine address returned
by the AppleTalk GetInfo call, and if that address is in the slot ROM space,
then that slot is the slot used by the RPM interface. In other words, if the
completion routine points to $0000CnXX, where n is between 1 and 7, then n is
the slot to be used when printing through the RPM interface. If the
completion routine address is not in the slot ROM space, then the application
cannot determine what slot the RPM interface is using and must query the user.
The second method works only with the ROM 03 Apple IIgs. It retrieves the
slot the RPM interface is using from location $E101C2.
This technique applies only to ProDOS 8 programs. Apple IIgs applications
running under GS/OS should do text printing over the network through the
Remote Print Manager (.RPM) driver, which can be identified by a deviceID of
$001F as returned from the DInfo call.
;
; This routine will identify AppleTalk and the RPM interface slot
; (if possible).
; This routine is for ProDOS 8 applications only.
;
keep FindRPMSlot
longa off
longi off
FindRPMSlot start
lda #$00
sta RPMSlot default to no RPM interface slot
; Check for AppleTalk (see AppleTalk Technical Note #1)
jsr $BF00 ProDOS 8 MLI
dc h'42' $42 command for network calls
dc a'InfoParams' Parameter list address
bcs NoATalk no AppleTalk; handle the error
; Get machine type & ROM version (see Apple II Miscellaneous Tech Note #7)
sec
jsr $FE1F What kind of machine are we on?
bcs CheckCom Not a IIGS, check completion address
cpy #$03
bcc CheckCom Earlier than ROM 03 IIGS, check
; completion address
ROM03 anop ROM 03 or greater IIGS' use location
; $E101C2 to find the RPM interface slot
lda $E101C2 Get the RPM interface slot
sta RPMSlot
beq AskForSlot
bra HaveSlot
CheckCom anop use completion address to find slot
lda ComReturn+2 bank $00?
ora ComReturn+3 high byte = 0?
bne AskForSlot no, so slot can't be determined
lda ComReturn+1 get the address page
cmp #$C8
bcs AskForSlot greater or equal to $C8 is bad
cmp #$C1
bcc AskForSlot less than $C1 is bad
and #$0F $Cn = $0n
sta RPMSlot
HaveSlot anop AppleTalk is installed and RPM is
; using slot #RPMSlot
AskForSlot anop AppleTalk is installed but RPM
; interface slot cannot be determined
NoATalk anop AppleTalk is not installed
rts so this sample returns
RPMSlot entry
dc h'00' Slot RPM interface is using
InfoParams dc h'00' Synchronous only
dc h'02' GetInfo call number
ds 2 result code
ComReturn ds 4 completion return address
ds 8 space for other result info
end
Further Reference
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o AppleShare Programmer's Guide for the Apple II Family
o Apple II AppleTalk Technical Note #1, Identifying AppleTalk
o Apple II Miscellaneous Technical Note #7, Apple II Family Identification
o Apple II Miscellaneous Technical Note #8, Pascal 1.1
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