[comp.sys.dec] Printing through terminal printer port in TSX+

heuer@decus.com.au ((Powell A HEUER), CSIRO Wool Technology, Sydney) (06/06/90)

We have a number TSX-Plus (a multi-user PDP-11 operating system)
systems, each of them with a number of VT-series terminals with printer
ports.  Some of these terminals are fairly widely dispersed so it takes
a lot of serial lines to provided printers convenient to all users.
However, a printer connected to the printer port of the user's terminal
would be a good solution in many cases.

Does anyone know of software, ideally a pseudo-device handler, that
allows a printer on the VT-terminal's printer port to be used as the
destination for that user's printer output?  Ideally it would function
with the  TSX+ print spooler and allow transparent operation of the
terminal while output was being printed.

It would presumably operate by accepting output from the print spooler,
put the appropriate escape sequences around each line or block so output
went to the printer port and not the screen, and then send it using the
terminal device handler.  The user could continue to use the terminal
but with some reduction in bandwidth.

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Powell Heuer                            E-Mail: HEUER@decus.com.au
CSIRO Division of Wool Technology       Phone : +61 2 80 0211
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