>I seem to need a file called /dev/lp.
>I do not have one.

Actually, /dev/lp is just a default.  You need to set the lp param in
the printcap to point to the name of the printer device.  I don't know what
that is for netbsd/amiga - for netbsd/i386, it's /dev/lpa0.

>And so I have a battery of questions. Cut me off anywhere
>but a nudge to enlightenment would be greatly appreciated.
>
>1. How does one create files for /dev ?

Look at /dev/MAKEDEV, and the man page for MAKEDEV.

>2. How/where does NetBSD define the parallel port ?
>   Maybe this question should be:
>   How/where does NetBSD define things hanging on the parallel port ?

NetBSD doesn't have any concept of stuff hanging off the parallel port -
it just treats the parallel port as an output device.  The parallel port
should be defined in your kernel config file.  If you look at the output
messages upon boot (you can use dmesg to look at them without rebooting),
you should see one of the lines define your parallel port.  On the i386,
it looks like this:

lpt0 at isa0 port 0x378-0x37f irq 7

I don't know what it would look like under netbsd/amiga, but I would guess
that it's of the form "lp*0".

>3. What should the printcap file look like for a DeskJet 500C ?

Depends.  If you don't need any special filters, it might look like this:

lp:\
        :lp=/dev/lpa0:sd=/var/spool/lpd/lp:lf=/var/log/lpd-errs:sh:mx#0:

(you'll need to make the /var/spool/lpd/lp directory).

--Ken