Printer Control

Dot-Matrix Printer Test Bench

Dial 555-7768 to Launch

Introduction

Welcome to Printer Control, the dial-up test bench for the Emulator.ca peripheral bus. From this service you can print a sample page, send text to a connected dot-matrix printer, and verify that your browser-local hardware collection is wired correctly.

The service is intentionally local. Purchased peripherals are stored in your browser, and the phone line talks to the in-page peripheral manager rather than a remote print server. If you have not bought a printer yet, DEMO gives you a virtual session-only printer so the first call still does something useful.

Printer Control does not send documents to a cloud printer. It talks to peripherals mounted in this browser tab. A fresh browser starts with no purchased hardware, but the virtual demo printer is always available.

Quick Start

  1. Dial ATDT555-7768.
  2. Type DEMO and press ENTER.
  3. Watch the virtual printer test page scroll in the terminal.
  4. If you own a printer, type LIST, SELECT 1, then PRINT Hello from 1984!.
ATDT555-7768
CONNECT 1200

┌─────────────────── 555-PRNT ───────────────────┐
│PRINTER CONTROL SYSTEM v1.0                     │
│555-7768                                        │
│Type DEMO for a virtual printer.                │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

> DEMO

═══ VIRTUAL DEMO PRINTER ═══
| ===============================================================================
|                            PRINTER TEST PAGE
| ===============================================================================

Commands

Command Description
DEMO Print a sample page to the terminal using a virtual printer
LIST Show mounted serial peripherals
SELECT n Select a mounted peripheral by list number
STATUS Show the selected peripheral status
PRINT text Send text to the selected printer
TEST Send the full test page to the selected printer
FF Send a form feed
INIT Reset the selected printer
RAW Enter direct byte mode; press ESC to return
HELP Show command help
QUIT Disconnect

Start with DEMO. It proves the service is working even before you visit the Peripheral Shop.

Connecting Real Printers

Use the F10 menu and open Peripheral Shop to buy and mount hardware. Once a printer is mounted, return to the terminal and dial 555-7768.

> LIST

═══ CONNECTED PERIPHERALS ═══

  1. [PRT] OkayData ML-320 V2
     Canonical ML320-era dot matrix printer

> SELECT 1
Selected: OkayData ML-320 V2

[OkayData ML-320 V2]> PRINT Hello, neighbour!
Printed: "Hello, neighbour!"

PRINT Escape Codes

PRINT understands a small set of backslash shortcuts and translates them to ESC/P-style printer control bytes.

Code Meaning
\n New line
\t Horizontal tab
\r Carriage return
\f Form feed
\b Bold on
\B Bold off
\i Italic on
\I Italic off

RAW mode does not expand these shortcuts. It sends exactly what you type followed by a line ending, which is useful for testing low-level device behaviour.

Notes