barnett@vdsvax.steinmetz.ge.com (Bruce G Barnett) (12/11/87)
We have someone whom is trying to print a large file on a LaserWriter. It prints fine on one LaserWriter, and fails on others. In another example, I tried to print a screendump, and it failed with the message: %%[ Error: limitcheck; OffendingCommand: framedevice ]%% %%[ Flushing: rest of job (to end-of-file) will be ignored ]%% I power cycled the LaserWriter off and on, and the problem went away. We support various applications here, from NeWS, Framemaker, Interleaf, Scribe, Publisher and MicroSoft Word with Sun PC-NFS. We also have Sun And Adobe's Transcript software. My question is - can a user sent something to the printer that can cause it to be in a different state for the next job? That is, if our PC user downloads a file, especially some preamble needed for MicroSoft Word on a PC, will this cause some memory to be unavailable for the next job? Basically, how do you 1. Download something large into memory, and keep it there for several jobs, some of which aren't yours. 2. Prevent the above from happening 3. Clear out the LaserWriter's memory without a power cycle.
tj@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu (Terry Jones) (12/16/87)
If a program uses the exitserver then it most certainly can gobble up printer ram and cause other applications to fail. In fact, the one application that you mention (Microsoft Word) DOES use exitserver to permanently leave its preamble code in there. The preamble stays around from job to job. Micrcomputer applications code writers are very selfish people that assume that when they are printing to the printer THEY ARE THE ONE AND ONLY USER of that printer. Now I am about to slam Microsoft a bit, but don't get me wrong. Their stuff does some things very well. Their PostScript code preamble is only sent the first time you print to the device. Fine as long as it stays around. If you power off the printer (then on again!!!) and print WITHOUT exiting Word (direct attached PostScript device) then Word thinks the device KNOWS the preamble so it doesn't send it. The output fails. The printer sees junk cause the preamble is missing. Their preamble doesn't follow even the minimum of the comment conventions. WordPerfect is the worst. They send extended ASCII codes. Bitch to send across a network. Also the printer has to be changed from factory settings of parity ignored to parity none. This recently cause 35MM express to fail cause they (stupidly) send stuff out at even parity. Would have worked at factory settings (parity bit ignored) but because we set the printer to work with WordPerfect the parity bit is assumed as a real character and is seen as an unimplimented command and causes a PostScript Error. Well, you get the drift and if anyone wants more horror stories then call me. P.S. A long letter to WordPerfect about their crummy code got me nothing!!! Their reply was in the form (verbal) of fixed in the next release for a couple of simple things and future consideration for most and will not do for others. Until we complain they will do nothing. Write the vendor. tj .
lamy@ai.toronto.edu (Jean-Francois Lamy) (12/17/87)
>Until we complain they will do nothing. Write the vendor.
We have similar problems here with people switching printers from Appletalk
back to the serial port without power cycling. The Apple prologue is still
in memory, and subsequent TeX/troff jobs mysteriously run out of memory...
If only there was a way to
a) given the exitserver passwd, clear the internal memory
or at least
b) reset the printer softly, without the damage repeated power cycling
inflicts.
Jean-Francois Lamy lamy@ai.toronto.edu
AI Group, Department of Computer Science (416) 978-8700
University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4tj@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu (Terry Jones) (12/17/87)
>We have similar problems here with people switching printers from Appletalk >back to the serial port without power cycling. The Apple prologue is still >in memory, and subsequent TeX/troff jobs mysteriously run out of memory... >If only there was a way to >a) given the exitserver passwd, clear the internal memory >or at least >b) reset the printer softly, without the damage repeated power cycling > inflicts. Just thought I would follow up on this. We are in a position where we power cycle the printer between EACH user here. Even if we don't switch from one communication to another. A couple of reasons for this. We charge for output (amazing!) and we use the page count the comes up on the startup page as hardcopy record. Also as mentioned it clears the printer memory. EVEN when two users in a row are on the Mac the printer should be cycled because there are so many different versions of Laser-Prep that are neither upward or downward compatible that either the software chokes and says power cycle the printer, or else the thing bombs with an obscure PostScript error. If we were in a position where people coming in could be prevented from using their system and finder and LaserPrep then maybe the second reason wouldn't be valid, but likely it would turn out that they either NEEDED a more recent version or else a VERY old version. This still comes back to the fact that LaserPrep permanently stores things in printer ram. So it takes a couple of seconds to download LaserPrep each time... big deal. DON'T use exitserver. DO read the PostScript developers guide. Save yourselves headaches. Oh well. Maybe ONE developer is listening out there somewhere. tj
erik@l5comp.UUCP (Erik Smith) (01/05/88)
In article <1987Dec16.164551.9109@jarvis.csri.toronto.edu> lamy@ai.toronto.edu (Jean-Francois Lamy) writes: > >If only there was a way to >a) given the exitserver passwd, clear the internal memory >or at least >b) reset the printer softly, without the damage repeated power cycling > inflicts.> Try "systemdict /quit get exec" to clear PostScripts VM. Use of exitserver is not required. You will even get a new fresh startup page. Works just fine for Apple, QMS, Varityper, Linotype devices (QMS JetScript included). Fodder Fodder Fodder Erik Smith