wln@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (William L Nussbaum) (10/28/90)
...Given that AppleTalk is implemented over RS-422, how difficult would it be to implement AppleTalk directly for the NeXT's serial ports (they are 422's, aren't they?) and make a Macintosh think it's printing to a PostScript printer (or spooler) when the NeXT is actually doing the work of a printer as a background job? Has it already been done? If so, by whom? If not, is it possible and is it a realistic project? - Lee | William illiam Lee Nussbaum, Jr. | >> InterNet: wln@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu | >> CompuServe: 72401.3554 (@compuserve.com) | <attach usual non-representation disclaimer>
saunders@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Kevin Saunders) (10/31/90)
In article <1990Oct28.020457.10908@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> wln@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (William L Nussbaum) writes: >...Given that AppleTalk is implemented over RS-422, how difficult would it be >to implement AppleTalk directly for the NeXT's serial ports? Uh, I had this great idea too, and thought for a few moments about it. Having had some experience with the 8530 and Apple's LocalTalk (.MPP) driver (color me black and blue), I can state forthrightly that 1) it might work 2) and would bring your machine to its knees with the interrupts required to service the 3-character buffer on the 8530, or, alternatively, grovel at the feet of the 8530 waiting for the next character to arrive. So somebody out there needs to develop a NeXTBus AppleTalk board! Rats, kevin Kevin Eric Saunders, Systems Programmer, Cornell U/Info-Tech/Network Resources cqu@cornellc.cit.cornell.edu -- Kevin Eric Saunders cqu@cornellc.cit.cornell.edu
dan@gacvx2.gac.edu (11/01/90)
In article <1990Oct31.144607.25123@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>, saunders@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Kevin Saunders) writes: > > So somebody out there needs to develop a NeXTBus AppleTalk board! > > Rats, > kevin > > Kevin Eric Saunders, Systems Programmer, Cornell U/Info-Tech/Network Resources > cqu@cornellc.cit.cornell.edu > This NeXTbus board would need not be more than an "Internal" Shiva FastPath on a board. It would be tough to justify spending $1600 (FastPath at edu pricing levels) for a board that would hook a single NeXT to an AppleTalk. -- Dan Boehlke Internet: dan@gac.edu Campus Network Manager BITNET: dan@gacvax1.bitnet Gustavus Adolphus College St. Peter, MN 56082 USA Phone: (507)931-7596
minich@d.cs.okstate.edu (Robert Minich) (11/01/90)
saunders@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Kevin Saunders) writes: | So somebody out there needs to develop a NeXTBus AppleTalk board! From article <1990Oct31.114439.133@gacvx2.gac.edu>, by dan@gacvx2.gac.edu: | This NeXTbus board would need not be more than an "Internal" Shiva FastPath on | a board. It would be tough to justify spending $1600 (FastPath at edu pricing | levels) for a board that would hook a single NeXT to an AppleTalk. Why not be more creative and do a little box that buffer LocalTalk (ie 240Kbps line) and then blast that over as fast as possible when the NeXT was the target of the packet (broadcast included)? Perhaps this could connect up through the DSP port? How fast can the NeXT talk to the serial chip if external clocking is used? On a mac, this can get up to around 900Kbps. At any rate, I imagine the expense of a building a NeXTBus anything would far outweight the cost of everything else. Ick. -- |_ /| | Robert Minich | |\'o.O' | Oklahoma State University| A fanatic is one who sticks to |=(___)= | minich@d.cs.okstate.edu | his guns -- whether they are | U | - Ackphtth | loaded or not.
eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) (11/02/90)
In article <1990Oct31.114439.133@gacvx2.gac.edu> dan@gacvx2.gac.edu writes: > It would be tough to justify spending $1600 (FastPath at edu pricing >levels) for a board that would hook a single NeXT to an AppleTalk. We found it tough to justify spending for a single FastPath to connect many, many NeXTs to many, many Macs. My department finally did it, and no regrets. The cost "per machine" is quite reasonable, and the performance is far better than we expected (although we still prefer dropping Ethernet cards in Macs). EtherTalk and MacTCP are much better than plain ol' LocalTalk. Sometimes I think the only reason we still bother with LocalTalk is for the LaserWriters-that-won't-go away. I'd love to use the NTX SCSI port, but apparently Apple doesn't support it for anything but a font disk. The NeXT laser printers are *much* nicer, but the "only 13 fonts" limitation is crippling, and Mr. Blue Pencil still won't approve purchasing Adobe Plus Pack ("why spend $500 for what you can already do with a LaserWriter?"). The Mac users are chuckling because they can get screen fonts for 33 *families* for free by anonymous FTP. And you wonder why we're still doing DTP on Macs... -=EPS=-
glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid) (11/03/90)
In article <998@toaster.SFSU.EDU> eps@cs.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) writes: > The NeXT laser printers are *much* >nicer, but the "only 13 fonts" limitation is crippling, and >Mr. Blue Pencil still won't approve purchasing Adobe Plus Pack >("why spend $500 for what you can already do with a >LaserWriter?"). Now you can buy individual typeface packages or other combinations of fonts, and the "only 13 fonts" limitation should be a thing of the past. You can also buy some more interesting fonts than those in the Plus Pack, making your NeXT printer more valuable than just another LaserWriter. Disclaimer: we re-sell Adobe fonts, but this isn't intended as an advertisement. Glenn -- Glenn Reid RightBrain Software glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us PostScript/NeXT developers ..{adobe,next}!heaven!glenn 415-851-1785