ye@henri.ucsb.edu (Hong Ye) (01/06/91)
Hi Everybody! I am still waiting PATIENTLY for my NeXTStation to arrive while you guys are having all the fun. Did anyone receive any 340MB NeXT? I wonder what kind of algorithm is used to allocate those precious puppies. It's not likely to be Minimum Average Waiting Time, I guess. Anyway, here is a few questions. NeXT says the internal floppy drive on the NeXTStation reads/writes DOS-formatted 1.44MB diskettes. What about Mac-formatted 1.44MB diskettes? Maybe not, huh? (Guess Steve still can get over it when it comes to Apple. No flame, please.) If not, is that a hardware problem(the drive itself just cannot take Mac floppies) or is that a software problem (the drive can read/write Mac floppies, but there is no software that handles Mac file system). If the latter is the case, any reasonable chance that somebody is going to come up with the software? Any way to get a laser printer for NeXT with around $500? I understand that all the rasterization is done on the NeXT itself. So a raster printer with some kind interface(serial, SCSI, etc.) is all that is necessary. There isn't any reason why we should pay extra for another PostScript interpreter in the printer; or for that matter, pay extra for -- PCL whatever (Yuk!:-) OkiLaser 400 was advertised for $600 here. I heard that the print engine actually uses LED instead laser. It's about 4 ppm. Does anybody know more about this printer? Please e-mail me the response. If there is enough of them I will post a summary. Thank you, David
flank@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Brett Jacobson) (01/06/91)
In article <7994@hub.ucsb.edu> ye@henri.ucsb.edu (Hong Ye) writes: > >Hi Everybody! > >I am still waiting PATIENTLY for my NeXTStation to arrive while you guys >are having all the fun. Did anyone receive any 340MB NeXT? I wonder what >kind of algorithm is used to allocate those precious puppies. It's not >likely to be Minimum Average Waiting Time, I guess. From what NeXT told me, they are not shipping the 400Mb systems yet. Yes they are shipping 400Mb HDs to everyone who purchases the 340Mb system. It has something to do with availability ofthe hard drive. :-) >Anyway, here is a few questions. NeXT says the internal floppy drive on >the NeXTStation reads/writes DOS-formatted 1.44MB diskettes. What about >Mac-formatted 1.44MB diskettes? Maybe not, huh? (Guess Steve still can >get over it when it comes to Apple. No flame, please.) If not, is that >a hardware problem(the drive itself just cannot take Mac floppies) or >is that a software problem (the drive can read/write Mac floppies, but >there is no software that handles Mac file system). If the latter is >the case, any reasonable chance that somebody is going to come up with >the software? From what I understand, the NeXT could theoretically handle Mac disks, but it is not supported initially. The MS-DOS disks are handled AUTOMATICALLY, and appear as any UNIX disk would. Right now, the only way to communicate with a Max is through DataViz's software (included), or through a program on the Mac that can write MS-DOS disks... though I can't remember the name. There is also the box on the Mac that can read/write 5.25/3.5" MS-DOS disks, but its name also escapes me. >Any way to get a laser printer for NeXT with around $500? I understand >that all the rasterization is done on the NeXT itself. So a raster printer >with some kind interface(serial, SCSI, etc.) is all that is necessary. >There isn't any reason why we should pay extra for another PostScript >interpreter in the printer; or for that matter, pay extra for -- >PCL whatever (Yuk!:-) OkiLaser 400 was advertised for $600 here. I >heard that the print engine actually uses LED instead laser. It's >about 4 ppm. Does anybody know more about this printer? > To use any laser printer (or any printer that is) other than the NeXT one, you will have to write the device drivers that will use the Display Postscript system to image the page, and then dump it to the printer in pure bit-maps. This should not be to hard, except to make it transparent to the user. I believe there is already a driver for the ImageWriter IIs. As to the OkiLaser... I believe they mean that it uses a LED Laser, not a HeNe tube. NEC also uses this system, and it works quite well. I posted this since I though it would be of general interest, and I hate summaries. Chris Petrilli petrilli@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu petrilli@dogface.UUCP