SCSI2Pi printing function, emulating the ATARI SLM?

[1ST1]

Hello, would it be possible to emulate the ATARI SLM printer with SCSI2Pi? And then, CUPS converts the SLM data steam to a modern printer...

I know, the SLM printers are ACSI, but maybe it is possible to support them by modifying the NVDI, Diabolo-630, Laserbrain and the Calamus driver?

Or is it planned to have an ACSI2Pi version, this would not need to modify the drivers...

Then we could print directly out of Atari applications.

By the way, how to get a SCSI2Pi?

[uweseimet]

I'm sorry, but neither is an SLM emulation planned, nor would it make much sense, considering that the SLM is ACSI only. Modifying the drivers of all kinds of word processors is also something that is IMO out-of-scope. Something like ACSI2Pi would require special Pi hardware, which does not exist.

SCSI2Pi emulates a simple SCSI-2 compatible printer, and with the SCSI2Pi client tools any Atari (either via SCSI or with ACSI and a host adapter) can make use of this printer. The SLM printer is not compatible with the SCSI-2 specification, so it is not a device candidate for SCSI2Pi anyway.

[1ST1]

I think it would make sense. Most Atari software doesn't need special SLM driver if the Diabolo-630 or laserbrain (Epson FX) emulator is installed, you only need to select the coresponding application native driver. These drivers are emulating the coresponding line based printers on the laser.

Example on an Atari ST, STE, TT:
open 1ST Word plus, load inside of Wordplus the Diabolo 630 driver and print. Prerequisite is that the Diabolo 630 driver was loaded from AUTO folder.
open 1ST Word plus, load inside of Wordplus the Epson FX 80 driver and print. Prerequisite is that the DMC Laserbrain driver was loaded from AUTO folder.

Diabolo and Laserbrain emulators redirect printing of the parallel printer port to the SLM. The software needs only to have an internal driver which is able to control a Diabolo or Epson printer by supporting the correct ESC/P sequences and ASCII coversion table, or being able to switch such a printer to graphics mode. (Yes, even Diabolo 630 daisywheel printers can print graphics using the dot "." and microspacing, but this is horrible waste of ribbon on a real mechanic daisywheel printer...)

Besides the kind of printer emulation (Diabolo, Epson) the main difference between those two printer emulators is that the Laserbrain needs much less memory as the Diablo one. The Diabolo can only be used sensefull if you have a 4 MB machine, the Laserbrain even works on 1 and 2 MB machine as it's memory management is much smarter.

This is the same for any software on the ST, except it supports GDOS. (Or it is Calamus with it's own SLM driver which does not depend on Diabolo or Laserbrain or a GDOS in Auto-Folder, Signum maybe as well, I don't remember anymore...)

But yeah, the problem is that SLM is an ACSI device. But maybe it even would work with SCSI2Pi if it is connected to an ACSI 2 SCSI hostadapter.

Please think about that. I can provide you the Diabolo and Laserbrain emulators for SLM printers, I have the disk images.

[uweseimet]

I am sorry, but I will definitely not implement this functionality. SCSI2Pi is not an emulation for devices not compliant with SCSI or SASI. But it is open source. Therefore, if an SLM emulation is important for you, create a fork and try to implement it. AI support might be helpful for such a project.