SMITHM@QUCDN.QueensU.CA (08/03/90)
I've got a user who purchased an IBM 4019 LaserPrinter with the PostScript option. He wants to also print PCL files. Over the past several weeks I've been trying to get IBM Support in Toronto to tell me how to switch emulation modes via software. IBM faxed me a manual page that was supposed to be the answer. The fact that the sequence showed how to go from IBM PPDS to PostScript instead of PCL to PostScript was problematic. Of more concern was the fact that each switch out of PostScript mode writes to NVRAM and this memory expires after 6000 writes. Does anyone have this 4019 beast and use it in a mixed PCL/PostScript environment? After weeks of delay, IBM sent me a DOS program which supposedly supports emulation switching. We trapped the output of the program to determine the magic incantations so that they could be used in a Sun printer driver. Alas, the switch seems to work sometimes and not others. Since the output of the IBM supplied DOS program disagrees with the IBM supplied documentation we're at a loss to help ourselves. I still have the problem open with IBM but life is so short I'm hoping somebody in netland can give me the answer before I retire. Another thing nobody at IBM knows is, what is the procedure to replace the NVRAM and what does it cost? This whole matter has been incredibly frustrating. The owner of the 4019 is rightly p*ssed off because he was told before he bought the unit that the mixed PCL/PostScript usage would be no problem. Mike Smith SMITHM@QUCDN.BITNET Queen's University Michael.D.Smith@QueensU.CA Computing and Communications Services (613) 545-2024
woody@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Woody Baker @ Eagle Signal) (08/05/90)
In article <90215.111938SMITHM@QUCDN.BITNET>, SMITHM@QUCDN.QueensU.CA writes: > option. He wants to also print PCL files. Over the past several weeks > I've been trying to get IBM Support in Toronto to tell me how to switch > emulation modes via software. IBM faxed me a manual page that was supposed > to be the answer. The fact that the sequence showed how to go from IBM > > This whole matter has been incredibly frustrating. The owner of the 4019 > is rightly p*ssed off because he was told before he bought the unit that > the mixed PCL/PostScript usage would be no problem. I have not had any experience with the 4019. Which version of PS does it use? There actualy are a couple of ways to do the switching. If the printer supports setsoftwareiomode that should do it, otherwise you might try the following: it works with some printers, but depends on undocumented stuff in statusdict. This also has a patch to fix the missing tray switching command in the PS800II. That patch works by starting the hp emulator in Postscript and then exiting it, sending it a space followed by the hp tray switch escape sequence, followed by a space. The code defines a procedure by the name of the escape sequence, that causes the tray to be switched and the emulation to be started again. It bypasses the reset of the tray to the default tray, as the original invocation of HPLJ mode did. You might also try exehplj some printers have that command in the status dict. If you have a bidirectional connection, try the following using an interactive terminal emulation program with screen capture executive <CR> This will get you to interactive ps mode. then: /serverdict load {== ==} forall /statusdict load {== ==} forall /$printerdict laod {== ==} forall will dump the internal dictionaries back to you. Capture them, and look for the openswitch procedures. If you do capture these, I'd like a copy of them, as I am collecting dumps of statusdicts, and serverdicts. Hope that this helps some. DISCLAIMER: I've never even *seen* a IBM 4019... Cheers Woody Baker