> All Centronics ports have 8 bits going one way, and 4 "handshake" bits > going the other way.
That's a very PC-centric statement for you, and I am not convinced it's even true on IBM PCs and compatibles! There are plenty of machines that have 7 or 8 data bits output, automatic strobe when the CPU writes to that output port and just a single busy pin input. On the PC, there are indeed 8 data output lines. But there are also 4 more control output lines that are fully under program control (strobe, etc) and 4 (or is it 5) input lines normally used for printer status input. -tony
