>
> As part of several comments on the PIC 16C84 RA4 pin the following appeared:
>
>   "... **BUT** some parallel ports, most notably Toshiba laptops, do NOT
> support this."
>
>   Blame Toshiba for that one! Try using Interlink (formerly Laplink) with
> one of those Turkey's and look like a fool.

Do you (or does anyone) have any idea whether that wierdness is only a
problem with Toshiba laptops, or if it is more widespread?  I have no
real qualm with the /Strobe wire not being open-collector (if it's open
collector it will pose a bottleneck when trying to send data quickly to
a printer).  My qualm is that the other control outputs, even though they
are open-collector, can't be read back; a read to the control port will
show the latched value rather than what's actually on the pin!

[btw, even for the strobe wire, they should have done something analagous
to the 87C51 pullup design: make it so that when the pin has a low->high
transition it will be pulled up hard, briefly, and so that it's pulled up
weakly the rest of the time.]