joe@oregon.uoregon.edu (Joe St Sauver) (08/09/89)
Can anyone point me to Postscript code that will allow me to do the software equivalent of turning an Apple Laserwriter off and back on again, or otherwise recover needed virtual memory? Essentially, in case someone can suggest a better alternative, here's the story: Postscript output is being generated by TeX/dvips (on a NeXT sitting on an ethernet). The Postscript is then being transferred (using binary FTP) to a PC with a LocalTalk card. LWPRINT is then used on the PC to send the Postscript to a shared Laserwriter (sitting on the LocalTalk network). [Before you die laughing at this arrangement, we *will* be striving to replace this rather kludgy "solution" with CAP before too long, but for now, here's what happens...] The Laserwriter performs like a real soldier *IF* the NeXT output is sent to the LaserWriter just after it has been powered down and back up. However, if the normal hodgepodge of jobs from Macintosh and Novell-network have been pumped through ahead of it, the NeXT Postscript output croaks with a VMerror when sent from the PC with LWPRINT. Incidentally, before anyone asks, yes, I have reduced the amount of memory declared to be available to PS to only 35000 bytes, so the NeXT is *not* trying to send Postscript suitable for a memory-rich NeXT laser printer. (I've tried lower values, but 30000 or below hangs dvips). Remember, it works fine if the NeXT output is the first job onto the newly powered-up LaserWriter.
cet1@cl.cam.ac.uk (C.E. Thompson on jenny) (08/11/89)
In article <6318@oregon.uoregon.edu>, joe@oregon.uoregon.edu (Joe St
Sauver) asks (effectively) for PostScript code to restore a LaserWriter
to its newly switched-on state. For all varieties of LaserWriter I have
met, the following will work:
systemdict /quit get exec
i.e. obey the "quit" operator from systemdict rather than the more
usual one in userdict.
Note that this will send the printer through its normal startup sequence
(printing the test page, etc., depending on the eerom contents). The
DTR signal on the RS-232 port will drop temporarily.
You could make yourself quite unpopular doing this to LaserWriters with
carefully setup contents.
The Adobe PPD files have a "*Reset" entry for defining how to do this
sort of thing. You are meant to prefix the code with the printer
password, but at least up to PostScript 38.0 LaserWriters, it isn't
actually necessary to do an "exitserver" before using the technique
described above.
Chris Thompson
Cambridge University Computing Service
JANET: cet1@uk.ac.cam.phx
Internet: cet1%phx.cam.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.ukatieu@skat.usc.edu (Anthony Tieu) (08/19/89)
Hi, My LaserWriter IINTX has a strange problem. It prints the startup page with no problems. I can see the printer from the chooser, but whenever I print something (even a single letter from MS word) , the printer 's green keeping flashing and process the job forever and never print. I try printing with other applications but it does the same thing. Is it possible that some postscript code that cause this problem. I know it's possible to change the printer type so it won't show up on the chooser. Any ideas.... Thanks Anthony Tieu