laser-lovers@uw-beaver (04/05/85)
From: Alan Crosswell <US.ALAN@CU20B.ARPA> * TranScript TranScript arrived yesterday. Nicely done, Adobe! I've tried it out with ditroff, eqn, plot, and the PostScript programs that they supply (all the programs from the PostScript Cookbook as well as other samples). I even used 'S' to get a map of the US of A: % S > unixplot > usa > ^D % psplot unixplot.out | lpr -h -Pps We got the binary distribution (since I ordered it before they offered site source licences -- I am reordering now) and it was missing the sun rasterfile program. I guess they figure since you're on a Vax, you won't have need for rasterfiles. So, if you are ordering the binary for a Vax and have Suns elsewhere on your network that you may want to get rasterfiles from, make sure to ask them for the sun code as well. It did come with the man page for it! One problem I did have with it was using pic with ditroff. The printer rejects it because a command is out of bounds or something like that: psof: cucca:alan Job: Ditroff Date: Thu Apr 4 21:46:44 1985 psif: cucca:alan start - Thu Apr 4 21:46:44 1985 %%[ Error: rangecheck; OffendingCommand: get ]%% %%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%% psif: end - Thu Apr 4 21:47:03 1985 I'll have to look more closely at it to make sure it's not something with our copy of pic which has a few mods done by various people before I bother Adobe with it. The printer error messages are written to a log file in /usr/adm. You can also send a program to the printer which sits above everything else and puts the error messages out on the printer instead of (in addition to?) the log file. I haven't tried this yet. By the way, here's a neat tidbit from the TranScript documentation: Connect to the printer over the RS232 port and type "executive". It goes into "interactive" mode; your typing is now echoed back and delete and ^U editing work: PostScript(tm) Version 23.0 Copyright (c) 1984 Adobe Systems Incorporated. PS> * LaserWriter question Now that we are trying to share the same printer between AppleTalk and RS232 (I'm sure fights will ensue!), I'm curious if anyone knows if the port can be selected in software (i.e. a PostScript program) or if we can at least turn the switch in the back and do a "soft" boot of the software to avoid power-cycling the printer. Eventually, we will work something out with getting them both on the same network (ala Seagate or something). * Note to COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY readers only (sorry to burden the rest of you with this, but there are a number of CU machines that don't talk locally but may be on this list) If you would like to share the cost of a site-wide TranScript license, please get in touch with me by mail (or look me up in the CU directory). Alan Crosswell Columbia University Center for Computing Activities -------