HP 95LX - Page 102

Non-PC-Compatible Systems
At this writing, there is no “Connectivity Pack” available for the Macintosh or
Amiga computer families. You can transfer files between the HP 95LX and any
system running a Kermit terminal emulation program (available for the Mac and
most platforms). Even if you can communicate with non-PC compatible systems
you need to translate files between the HP 95LX formats and other formats. The
Connectivity Pack comes with translation utilities for three common PC personal
information manager applications—Lotus Metro, Borland Sidekick Plus, and
Central Point PC Tools. And developers are now creating new translators for other
applications and machines (see page 136 for how to find out the latest).
Printing Indirectly (a Parallel Printer Solution)
Many printers have parallel ports, but no serial ports. The HP 95LX is not easily
connected to such printers. You have two alternatives:
* Create a subdirectory on your PC to collect the “files-to-be-printed” that you
upload from the HP 95LX via the Connectivity Pack (see page 93). These files
should be saved as ASCII text files (see page 83) or you can save worksheet files
as «WK1 files if you have a copy of Lotus 2.2 on your PC. Once on your PC, you
can open the files, format them differently if you wish and then print, using
your word processor (or Lotus) and whatever printer drivers you have loaded
into the PC. This method is quite straightforward but not all that convenient,
compared to the printing you can do directly (see the next page).
* You can run a terminal emulation program (such as Kermit) on your PC,
configured to receive data from the serial port (which is connected to the HP
95LX) and then to send it directly to the PC’s printer. In this configuration, you
would execute the print job directly from the HP 95LX and the print data would
be sent through the PC, using Kermit, to the printer. This method requires a
sophisticated understanding of Kermit and communications programs, but
once set up, can be almost as convenient as direct printing.
102 4. CoMMUNICATING WITH OTHER DEVICES