>> What is more puzzling is that this cable apparently works just fine 
>> when used with other equipment...
> 
> Yes the RS232 was known to be the most non-standard, standard.

I just tried a different cable, which also supposedly works, and it has 
an entirely unrelated layout. Pin 6 is not connected at either and, and 
there's a 1-4 crossover. (Still, at least the connections are 
*symmetric* this time!)

So I tried a third lead. Didn't bother writing the connections down, but 
it has another arrangement again. Pin 1 connects to pin 8...

It seems that for any arbitrary cable, you will find a different random 
permutation of connections! >_<

And yet, these cables all "work", so maybe it's not even important? I 
notice that every single one of them has 5 straight and a 2-3 crossover, 
so maybe that's the only thing that actually matters?

> Your 
> cable pin assignment looks familiar but if you want it to work with your 
> printer you will need to change it to the way specified in the manual. 
> At least the connectors are solder-able.

Yeah, I think I'm going to have to make the cable my God-damned self if 
I want it to match the manual.

And hence apparently you can only WRITE TO, but not READ FROM the serial 
port from DOS, it won't solve my problem anyway.

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