Hi
halui.machine.is-on is an exported PIN from the halui module
Your entry
#This is the only line I left in after trying a few.
net halui.machine.is-on => parport.0.pin-16-out
is treating it as a SIGNAL, which is why it doesn't work
As John said earlier the syntax needs to be
net SIGNAL PIN [PIN....]
so
net powered-up halui.machine.is-on => parport.0.pin-16-out
will create a signal called
powered-up which other pins can link to if required and links
parport.0.pin-16-out to the boolean
halui.machine.is-on value.
I think of signals as pieces of bare wire that physically wrap between pins and connect them.
Another pin cannot connect to the same pins but it can connect to the bare wire and share the same signal.
Hope this analogy helps, once you have it straight in your head the whole thing falls into place.
regards