laser-lovers@uw-beaver (laser-lovers) (11/08/84)
From: Michael.Shamos@CMU-CS-A.ARPA
[This is in response to a recent message from Sid Shapiro at Wang
concerning Scribe support for the DEC LN01.]
The first problem Wang reported was that Scribe does not come with fonts
for the LN01 and thus it is necessary to buy fonts from DEC. UNILOGIC is not,
cannot be and never will be in the font business. Most of the fonts and
font formats used by manufacturers of devices supported by Scribe are
proprietary to those manufacturers and UNILOGIC has signed non-disclosure
agreements that forbid it from using the format information to sell fonts.
It is also a practical impossibility for us to supply fonts. There are
over 10,000 fonts currently available for the union of the devices supported
by Scribe. We have neither the expertise, software or legal right to provide
fonts for all but a tiny fraction of these devices.
As a convenience to users, when Scribe support for the Imagen Imprint-10
was first announced, we distributed (with Imagen's permission) a subset of
the Imagen font tape corresponding to those fonts for which we had created
Scribe Database entries. These were only fonts that users received wit
their Imagen anyway, and no separate charge was imposed. In retrospect,
our having done so was an error. It fostered the notion that we would be
acting as a font distribution source in spite of the clear admonition
appearing on p. 40 of the Scribe Database Administrator's Guide, 3C Supplement,
published in August, 1982: ``UNILOGIC does not sell RawFonts or any font
creation software.'' This is our policy and will remain our policy for the
reasons given above. I do not believe that we have ever represented
otherwise.
Wang has stated that we do not correctly support the default fonts supplied
with the LN01 by DEC. This is not the case. The default font set consists
of three fixed-width fonts, all fully supported. Should DEC decide to
expand the default set, we would add complete support for all such fonts
immediately. DEC LN01 support is a standard feature of Scribe and we want it
to be as useful as possible. [Please note: LN01S support is NOT a part of
basic Scribe, but is charged separately.]
The second problem raised is that Scribe output files destined for the
LN01 cannot be spooled by means of the VMS PRINT command or even the COPY
command. This is clearly a deficiency in DEC's support for its own output
device, a fact which DEC freely admits and is taking steps to correct. DEC
has contracted with an independent source to have a spooler written that
will process LN01 output and deal with font downloading, etc. At present,
this spooler is not yet generally available from DEC but we have used it
successfully to print LN01 output from Scribe. The following should
demonstrate that the lack of a spooler is not Scribe's problem. It is
possible, completely independently of Scribe, to take the LN01 manual and
create a valid LN01 output file by hand that will not be properly printed with
the PRINT or COPY commands. [But see Brian Adler's message.]
UNILOGIC never supplies or promises to supply spooler software. The
variety of output devices, processor types and operating systems supported
by Scribe would require more than 600 spoolers to be written, to say nothing
of the local options that each site would want.
We are mindful of the difficulties caused by the lack of spoolers and
the incompatibility of font formats but are unable to undertake the solution
of problems that properly rest with hardware manufacturers. One maker of
laser printers failed to supply the proper cable to connect his device to
the VAX. Our customer called and asserted that UNILOGIC ought to provide
the cable as part of Scribe support for the device! In another case, a
supplier of letter-quality typewriters was shipping units with defective
ROMs, which caused the device to interpret valid commands incorrectly. When
the manufacturer refused to replace the ROMs after receiving complaints
from Scribe customers, the customers turned to us for help. The pressure
was so great to solve the problem that we actually gave out free ROMs for
a while. We will undertake any reasonable steps to assist our customers,
but cannot answer for hardware or operating system deficiencies.
Mike Shamos
President, UNILOGIC, Ltd.laser-lovers@uw-beaver (laser-lovers) (11/11/84)
From: ss%wang-inst.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa > > [This is in response to a recent message from Sid Shapiro at Wang > concerning Scribe support for the DEC LN01.] > > Wang has stated that we do not correctly support the default fonts supplied > with the LN01 by DEC. This is not the case. What I said (or at least meant) was the default configuration of Scribe (for the LN01) did not reflect the default condition of the printer. In retrospect this is, of course, quite understandable, since how is UniLogic to know which printer I intend to use scribe with. However, there is no documentation with that describes how I tell scribe which of the LN01's fonts I DO have. > The second problem raised is that Scribe output files destined for the > LN01 cannot be spooled by means of the VMS PRINT command or even the COPY > command. This is clearly a deficiency in DEC's support for its own output > device, a fact which DEC freely admits and is taking steps to correct. True enough, however if UniLogic knows that there is a problem, I would have thought that they would be nice enough to warn people of this problem rather than letting us all find out on our own. If they must use a non-standard spooler to get things printed, then I would have expected at least a pointer to somwhere that I might obtain it also. Again in retrospect, I flamed a bit too much. However, I am disappointed in the level of warnings/support/and documentation that UniLogic provides. Which is too bad, since generally Scribe is great product. / Sid /