Hi LN,

Yes, fflush(stdout); does the trick. Thanks.

so I'm just curious now why there's so many printf's when I should only have 3 luaprinter devices
Code
luaprinter::luaprinter(device_t& thisdevice, int testvalue){ 
	m_lp_mydevice = &thisdevice; 
	time(&m_lp_session_time);  
	initvalue = testvalue;
	printf("yes you can");        // putting in a printf here
	fflush(stdout);
	
	};

Code
 ./mame64 apple2p  -sl1 parallel -sl1:parallel:pic_ctx luaprinter -flop1 ../../printographer.dsk -sl2 ssc -sl2:ssc:ssc_rs232 luaprinter -sl4 parallel -sl4:parallel:pic_ctx ap2000 -verbose

yes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canyes you canAttempting load of mame.ini
...

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  _/  _/  _/  _/_/_/_/  _/  _/  _/  _/_/_/    
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_/      _/  _/    _/  _/      _/  _/_/_/_/    

mame 0.224	
Copyright (C) Nicola Salmoria and the MAME team

Lua 5.3	
Copyright (C) Lua.org, PUC-Rio

...
yes you canyes you canyes you canAttempting load of raster.ini
Attempting load of source/apple2.ini
Attempting load of apple2.ini
Attempting load of apple2p.ini
yes you canyes you canyes you canAvailable videodrivers: x11 wayland dummy