jules@zen.UUCP (Julian Perry) (03/06/87)
I too saw the LaserJet II before official release and asked HP a few
questions about it. I was also impressed; however, I was also very
disappointed that what we found to be the most annoying features of the
LaserJet(+) had NOT been sorted out.
1. We use lots of soft fonts because it's not possible to get what we
want on a cartridge, so we download the fonts and then print out
documents, letters etc. This is all performed by our HP9040
multi-user mini through a spool queue. Now comes the annoying
bit......IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO FIND OUT WHICH FONTS ARE CURRENTLY
IN THE LASERJET MEMORY! This means that for each document we have
to download everything that it uses as we don't know what is
already in memory. We could keep track of what has been sent to
the LaserJet but if it gets switched off the computer doesn't
know.
2. The only interfaces are RS232 and Parallel, HP-IB (IEEE 488) would
have been very nice (especially from HP who have an HP-IB version
of everything) so that we can download graphics and fonts in a
reasonable time.
3. EPROMable font cartridges - PLEASE ?
Having said all that, the whole LaserJet series (and now the ScanJet
too) are truly wonderful, ours never stop printing.
Jules
--
IN-REAL-LIFE: Julian Perry
E-MAIL: jules@zen.co.uk || ...!mcvax!ukc!zen.co.uk!jules
PHONE: +44 532 489048 ext 217
ADDRESS: Zengrange Limited, Greenfield Road, Leeds, England, LS9 8DBbb@wjh12.UUCP (03/11/87)
In a follow-up to a review of the new LaserJet Series II,
Julian Perry (jules@zen.UUCP) comments:
......IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO FIND OUT WHICH FONTS ARE CURRENTLY
IN THE LASERJET MEMORY!
A while ago, I met with two engineers from HP's LaserJet group to
discuss LJ futures (*). The above issue was the first I raised. The
response was interesting, BUT, one must keep in mind the commendable
engineering philosophy associated with HP. Their response (paraphrased):
"Since the LaserJet family currently supports rs-232 (& rs-422) serial
and Centronics (8-bit parallel) interfaces, with additional ones
planned for future LJ printers, we feel it is important to maintain
a consistent software interface for the LJ family. Therefore,
since most printer interfaces (rs-232/422 is the exception) do
not support transmission of data from printer TO host computer,
there is no way to CONSISTENTLY provide this facility."
Such a response, from a lesser organization, might be construed as a
cop-out; from HP, I accepted it (begrudgingly!).
My second gripe about the LJ+ (and now LJ II) is the overly stingy
restriction on number of down-loaded fonts, and number of active (per-page)
fonts. Since no memory should be used until characters in the additional
font were loaded, why put an artificial restriction on this?
This is especially significant now that the LJ II can be expanded to 4.5 Mb.
[Hey, where did we put that dis-assembler and EPROM burner? :-) ]
(*) One of the other subjects of discussion was the recently-announced
LaserJet 2000 (300 dpi, 20 ppm, 11x17 max, duplex, $20k). During
development, this printer had a *great* "code name"; it was
dubbed the "JumboJet". Geez, they should have loosened their
ties and kept that name.
Julian's closing comment:
Having said all that, the whole LaserJet series (and now the ScanJet
too) are truly wonderful, ours never stop printing.
Hear, hear!
Brent Byer
Textware
--------
Usenet: def. "Free Speech!! (one each)"
credit: Roy Harperjewett@hpl-opus.HP.COM (Bob Jewett) (03/17/87)
# IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO FIND OUT WHICH FONTS ARE CURRENTLY
# IN THE LASERJET MEMORY!
# We could keep track of what has been sent to
# the LaserJet but if it gets switched off the computer doesn't
# know.
The version of troff on this machine does keep track of which fonts
have been downloaded. There is a command to reset that list if the
LaserJet is power cycled, and another command to inquire about presently
resident fonts.frank@zen.UUCP (Frank Wales) (03/19/87)
In a follow-up to a review of the new LaserJet Series II, }Julian Perry (jules@zen.UUCP) comments: } } ......IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO FIND OUT WHICH FONTS ARE CURRENTLY } IN THE LASERJET MEMORY! In article <59@wjh12.UUCP> brent@textware.UUCP (brent byer) writes: >A while ago, I met with two engineers from HP's LaserJet group to >discuss LJ futures (*). The above issue was the first I raised. The >response was interesting, BUT, one must keep in mind the commendable >engineering philosophy associated with HP. Their response (paraphrased): > > "Since the LaserJet family currently supports rs-232 (& rs-422) serial > and Centronics (8-bit parallel) interfaces, with additional ones > planned for future LJ printers, we feel it is important to maintain > a consistent software interface for the LJ family. Therefore, > since most printer interfaces (rs-232/422 is the exception) do > not support transmission of data from printer TO host computer, > there is no way to CONSISTENTLY provide this facility." > >Such a response, from a lesser organization, might be construed as a >cop-out; from HP, I accepted it (begrudgingly!). Well, now; who is benefiting from this decision? Software developers? Well, yes, since their LaserJet driver software becomes simpler to maintain. And no, because they can't reliably discover the state of the printer, so it becomes harder to write. Customers? Yes, because all LaserJets work alike. And no, because the feature set is constrained by whatever interface is the most brain-damaged, not by the capabilities of the equipment the printer is to be connected to. HP? Yes, because marketing a single feature set is easier than marketing multiple sets for the "same" product. And no, because sophisticated customers who are aware of the potential of the equipment get frustrated by what they perceive to be petty oversights. Is there another solution? Yes. Provide a guaranteed base feature set, with enhancements which make best use of individual models' capabilities. Such a solution doesn't affect any of the yesses above, but does hit the noes. (Ow! :~() And HP have already followed such a path before for other HP product lines offering multiple communications options. The ThinkJets, for example. Now, suppose one of the planned interfaces is HP-IB. Virtually every HP-IB peripheral supports some kind of status interrogation. Are HP saying that the limitations of certain interfacing standards are to cripple all possible implementations? Worse, the same logic also precludes bringing out enhanced models in the same series with additional or expanded features ("...but this new feature makes the software interface inconsistent -- let's drop it..."). Yet the LaserJet family is growing and expanding all the time. It certainly never used to be HP engineering philosophy to work to the lowest standard available. I'm sure that is still the case. [:-) -ish] Julian's closing comment: } Having said all that, the whole LaserJet series (and now the ScanJet } too) are truly wonderful, ours never stop printing. >Hear, hear! > Brent Byer > Textware There, there! :-) Oh, and while I'm here, Jules missed a pet peeve of mine -- it would be *real* *nice* (yes it would) to be able to pop a message of some kind into that nice big LCD screen to say something about what is being printed. Why? Well, our LaserJets are on an HP-UX system with loads of Users, and when two send output to a LaserJet at the same time requiring manual sheet feeding, it would be nice to know whose is which *before* the paper gets fed in. Just a thought... Frank Wales [frank@zen.uucp<->..!mcvax!ukc!zen.co.uk!frank] Development Engineer, part-time Systems Administrator and full-time pest Zengrange Limited. [You think I'm paid to have opinions?!]
rjn@hpfcmp.UUCP (03/20/87)
re: LaserJet status readback >> We could keep track of what has been sent to >> the LaserJet but if it gets switched off the computer doesn't >> know. > The version of troff on this machine does keep track of which fonts > have been downloaded. There is a command to reset that list if the > LaserJet is power cycled, and another command to inquire about presently > resident fonts. Both of these comments really say the same thing. Also, the commands mentioned in the second paragraph are for an unreleased version of troff. I'm not sure the four or so 3rd party troffs for HP9000 have this feature. I suspect the history behind the lack of readback is related to: * The RS-232C interface of LaserJet-I was developed by Canon. They did not have HP's tradition of implementing the kind of status readback escape sequences most other HP terminals and printers have. * The LJ-I was also designed for use with Centronics, for which no standard bidirectional I/O definition exists. Now that the ScanJet has defined a form of Centronics input, and has extended Printer Command Language (PCL) to include input, perhaps we'll see some status capabilities on future LaserJet class printers. I know that Boise division is aware of the need, although I'm not privy to any specific product plans on this issue. Regards, Hewlett-Packard Bob Niland 3404 East Harmony Road [ihnp4|hplabs]!hpfcla!rjn Fort Collins CO 80525