[fa.laser-lovers] Linotron 202 compatability issues

laser-lovers@uw-beaver (07/30/85)

From: zben@umd5 (Ben Cranston)

In message <1445@uw-beaver> (Rich Salz) <mirror!rs@cca-unix> opined:
> Subject: Tegra's Genesis product.
> Message-ID: <1445@uw-beaver>
> From: mirror!rs@cca-unix (Rich Salz)
> 
> Does anyone know of Tegra and their "Genesis" machine?
> They make a 1000dpi laser printer that's compatible with two VERY
> common typesetters.
> 
> "Genesis is plug-compatible with the Linotron 202 and
> Compugraphic 8600 typesetters.  'Anything their front end
> system can create on their 202 or 8600, they can create on 
> Gensis,' said Freda."

There are TWO input languages supported by the Linotron 202.  The
operational differance is which kind of program you boot from floppy.

There is a 6-bit language called CORA, which is set up for human beings
punching paper tape from keyboard perforators.  I believe this language
is invariant across the whole Linotron family of machines.  There is also
an 8-bit language called Binary Byte, which is more oriented toward the
computer output, and which I use in my software.

As an example, let's talk about skipping ("leading") 130 points of film.
In CORA you would code > A 1 3 0 <, where > and < are special FORMAT
control codes, and individual (decimal) digits are given for the data.
In Binary Byte this would be coded as (212) (202) (001), the (212) is
the leading code, the (202) is a (>128) flag and the low order 7 bits
of the data, the (001) is the high order 8 bits including sign.

Note that Binary Byte used 3 bytes, compared to 6 bytes for CORA.
(Modulo the fact that the CORA bytes were only 6 bits).  When you start
talking about plug-to-plug compatability, I think you need to take this
language differance into account...

Ben Cranston  ...{seismo!umcp-cs,ihnp4!rlgvax}!cvl!umd5!zben  zben@umd2.ARPA