laser-lovers@uw-beaver (laser-lovers) (06/28/84)
From: Rob Liebschutz <Liebschutz@RUTGERS.ARPA> Does anyone have any experience with Graphics interface packages for the Xerox 9700? We are interested in a way to provide a general interface between several hosts and the 9700. Some of the hosts and software that we are looking to interface include DECSYSTEM-20 Issco TEL-A-GRAF and DISSPLA IBM mainframe running MVS/JES2 SASGRAPH SIMVIEW various other software currently using fortran subroutine calls to plot on a ZETA plotter. So far, we have looked at the following packages and are interested in what experience anyone has had with them or the vendor (you need not comment on the largest vendor listed here, we've already had experience with them) XEROX's ELECTRONIC PRINTER IMAGE CONSTRUCTION (EPIC) package. For us this package will be quite costly, since it requires some basic hardware upgrades (from a model 167 to a model 168) in addition to the GRAHICS HARDWARE OPTION (GHO) board. IMAGE RESEARCH INC. (Santa Barbera, Calif), PLOT97. From what I understand, this package interfaces to the 9700 in a way similar to SCRIBE, and would only require that we add additional control and font memory to our 9700. We are also interested in an MVS/JES2 user interface for outputting DJDE's to the X9700. In particular, we are would like a package that would provide MVS/JES2 batch users with access to the capabilities of the 9700, but ensure that DJDE's sent to the printer are correct and that burster pages are printed in portrait mode using the correct font. So far, the only software I have seen for doing this is XEROX's XJCF package. Any comment (the sooner the better, since we are trying to make some purchases before the end of our fiscal year) on any of these things would be greatly appreciated. Rob -------