regan@cs.Buffalo.EDU (Kenneth Regan) (02/13/90)
This is a blending of queries I've made in comp.lang.postscript and comp.sys.ibm.pc, after someone suggested I post here. I have an 80386 PC connected via a "generic" Ethernet card to our local Unix network (which includes the SparcStation 1 also in my office), and a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet II. I will be getting a locally-grown DOS TCP/IP package for the PC, but have no other software for the card. I also have Desqview '386 (a multitasking DOS shell) and some comms software, but I have nothing specific to DOS-UNIX interchange (such as Rapport). What I wish to do is add one of the myriad PostScript options which have sprung up to the LJII, and print from both the PC and the Sparc1. The option which definitely appeals most DP-Tek "PS600" package ($1195 list), which combines a 600x600 dpi. LJII printer controller (two boards, one for the printer and one for the PC, connected by the LJII video interface), and the QMS-Imagen "Ultrascript Plus" software PS interpreter. What I have in mind is this: run the TCP/IP software in a Desqview window, and set up a Desqview process which spools incoming files from the Unix network and feeds them to Ultrascript. (After the 5.5MB of extended memory needed by "PS600", I'll have up to 2.5MB left for the files, plus lots of hard disk space.) Reaching for more, I'd like to set up a process on the Unix end which would let one treat the file-export just like a PostScript printing device. *** My question is: can this be done (fairly painlessly)? ~~~~~~~~~ Further notes: Most of the "hardware" options work rather like PS600/Ultrascript. That is, you get two boards which communicate over the video interface, and software or firmware which turns one of the parallel ports (LPT2 or LPT3 if not LPT1) into a "smart port", intercepting and processing any Postscript data which comes to (or through) the port. (Actually, Ultrascript can be set up to print from within PC applications, and all including the pure software interpreters can handle saved files.) My calls to several vendors (QMS, DP-TeK, Hanzon, Abaton/Everex, Princeton Pub., and CAI ["Freedom of Press" software]) have not turned up much "network awareness" -- all of these products are spanking new and not many tests have been done. The exception is the Pacific Page LJII cartridge, which does not involve the PC at all. One can use a general PostScript printcap file (say, as for an Apple LaserWriter IINT), and hook it directly to the network. The disadvantage for me is that I'm told (even by Pacific Data) that the cartridge only accepts soft fonts in Bitstream's format, and wouldn't take the many scientific soft PS fonts which come with my DOS WYSIWYG text processor (T-3 from TCI Software Research in New Mexico). Whether this can be worked around (say by including the font definitions in every file) I don't know. Thanks in advance for all replies; I will summarize e-mailed ones, and am curious about general issues this raises for using PC's and Unix networks cooperatively. Any partial information is also welcome. [Disclaimer: I have no commercial connection to any of these vendors, except for unpaid technical advice to TCI. Information on all the products mentioned can be had from recent issues of PC Magazine, PC Week, and InfoWorld.] Kenneth W. Regan Assistant Professor Computer Science Dept. (Opinions not < SUNYaB) SUNY at Buffalo, 226 Bell Hall Tel.: (716) 636-3189, -3180 Buffalo, NY 14260 regan@cs.buffalo.edu