File name:  SPINUP:D

     This document explains the updated features of the
printer driver SPINWR:S and the accompanying documentation,
SPIN:D found on this disk.

     SPINWR:S is a PTDOS device driver for the NEC Spin-
writer series of printers using serial interfaces.  The
original version appeared on Helios library disk #3.  That
version suffered from a few limitations and bugs which,
hopefully, have been corrected.  What follows is a summary
of the updated features and fixes.

Source code SPINWR:S

1)  With certain print operations, the first line of print
would contain some garbage characters.  This was traced to
the initialization routine which has been fixed.

2)  If a line containing only blank characters or just a
carraige return was encountered, the driver would issue a
carraige return before issuing a line feed.  It now
detects this condition and issues only the LF.  This
prevents the carraige from continually returning to the
left margin when printing documents with multiple line
spacing.

3)  If the Spinwriter had printed a line in the forward
direction and prior to printing the next line in the back-
ward direction a pitch change occured, the registration
(margins) would become misaligned.  The driver now forces
forward printing whenever this condition is detected.

4)  The gap array containing the values for each blank in
the line was always read from left to right.  This some-
times caused misalignment when underlining or boldfacing
was accomplished while printing backward.  The driver now
scans the array in the same direction as printing.

5)  If an illegal value of pitch or vertical spacing was
sent to the driver, it was ignored.  It is still ignored
but to alert the operator, the driver beeps the alarm
buzzer on the Spinwriter to warn of an error.

6)  A new character, the caret (^) has been added which
will force an absolute space.  That is, a space which is
not averaged.  See the documentation for examples of its
use.

Documentation SPIN:D

1)  The documentation erroneously stated that an illegal
character sent to the driver would cause a PTDOS message
to appear.  In fact, nothing would happen but in this
latest version the printer alarm will sound.  See #5
above.

2)  Several of the examples explaining how the driver
calculated the array values were in error.  These have
been corrected.

3)  The illegal values of pitch and vertical spacing
were incorrect.  These have been corrected.  Also, a
quirk found in the way WordWizard calculates the value
has been explained.

4)  The explanation of printing from Basic was confusing.
This has been clarified.

5)  Several typos and confusing grammer have been correc-
ted.

Note:  The authors would very much like to hear from
persons using this driver.  If you notice any other
odd happenings or would like to see further improvements,
please write to us at the following address:

       Steve or Joe Maguire
       P.O. Box 3742 DT
       Anchorage, AK 99510

We actually live in Yokohama, Japan where the Spinwriter
is manufactured.  Any comments concerning the Spinwriter
itself (called the Badminton printer in Japan) will be
forwarded to the Product Improvement Department of
Nippon Electric Company.

As this disk is being prepared, we are having discussions
with the Software Development Department of NEC about
changes to the software driver contained within the
Spinwriter's ROMs.  Our experience with the Spinwriter
is that, in the USA, about 90% of its use is in word
processing applications as opposed to only 10% in Japan.
Our discussions with NEC concern changes to the software
which would allow more flexibility in WP applications.
The NEC software applications group would like input
from users as to what changes they would like and what
sort of flexibility would be desired.  Any comments
may be sent to them, or to us, if desired.