amichiel@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Allen J Michielsen) (12/17/90)
I have a bunch of HP (IIP's & III's) with extra memory and HP/Adobe PostScript Cartridges. While I am exceedingly happy with them in general, and even more so when using the appletalk interface & a MAC. I do seem to have a strange reoccuring problem. When I'm using the parallel printer interface on a PS, generally from inside a application (WP), AND I'm generating a complex page (several graphics windows, and several fonts, equations, etc.) the output tends to have a nasty habit of randomly losing items (lines, figures, shapes, fills, etc) from the graphics windows, &/or pasted/lined-up parts of equations become 'un-aligned'. If I 'print' the same thing to disk, then 'print' that file, the output is fine, & when I print just the graphics page alone, the output is fine. Nothing on the page is getting or being 'cropped' like that which occurs when the laserwriter runs out of memory and starts moving the margins in to conserve. The size and complexity of every page (8.5x14" nearly 0 margins-- camera ready publication output) is such that NO page can print on a apple laserwriter, plus or IINT, without getting cropped. The HP's have 3 MB of ram, and I'm trying to diagnose properly the exact and total cause of the problem. I figure it's most likely that either the HP is getting caught at the beginging of a memory shortage (*but amd surprised that no margin cutting is taking place*), OR that there's some 'soft' problem with the software recognizing the flow control of the parallel port in time. However, HOW I will exactly identify the cause is kinda a mystery to me. I feel that printing a single page fine, and dos printing the output file (outside the application) are both indicators that the problem is application bound I/O difficulty. But wonder if there MAY be some interaction with memory & status I/O. I'm thinking of trying to use the serial port & see what happens there, and also trying to find a application compatible printer spooler (in software) & see what happens then. Somehow, a little voice in the back of my mind keeps coming back to a 'problem' that more available memory will make disappear.... Any ideas ??? al -- Al. Michielsen, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Syracuse University InterNet: amichiel@rodan.acs.syr.edu amichiel@sunrise.acs.syr.edu Bitnet: AMICHIEL@SUNRISE
tj@gpu.utcs.utoronto.ca (Terry Jones) (12/19/90)
Just as a test take that same WordPerfect page and instead of printing to Port LPT1: set it to print to a dos file called LPT1 This results in WP thinking it is writing a disk file and dos saying this disk file is a magic name send it out the port. The result is that WP does not write directly to the hardware. If this then prints correctly then I would blame WP for the problem. Some of the newer versions of WP 5.1 (yes virginia there are a million different 5.1 versions roaming around...) have an option on the printer setup that says Print direct to hardware yes/no? or something to that effect. Saying Yes can give better speed according to WP. Saying no I suspect makes things work properly on some machines where the hardware is "exactly the same as IBM... except..." tj P.S. Let me know the results...