wross@caen.engin.umich.edu (Wendy Ross) (10/13/90)
Has anyone managed to get a serial-line attached Apple Laserwriter
to print from an RS/6000?
I have the device set up properly (ie I can echo postscript commands
to /dev/lp0 and it works), and I even got a postscript file
to print using this crazy AIX printing. The problem comes when
trying to print ASCII files. What is the proper formatter/input
filter to translate ASCII to postscript? Has anyone modified one
of the predefined printers to successfully work?
Thanks for any help.
Wendy Ross
internet: wross@caen.engin.umich.edu
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
<insert amusing quip here>
ron@woan (Ronald S. Woan) (10/17/90)
In article <1990Oct12.190015.10799@caen.engin.umich.edu>, wross@caen.engin.umich.edu (Wendy Ross) writes: Wendy> I have the device set up properly (ie I can echo postscript Wendy> commands to /dev/lp0 and it works), and I even got a postscript Wendy> file to print using this crazy AIX printing. The problem comes Wendy> when trying to print ASCII files. What is the proper Wendy> formatter/input filter to translate ASCII to postscript? Has Wendy> anyone modified one of the predefined printers to successfully Wendy> work? I don't believe IBM supplied an ASCII to PostScript filter... Some freely available ones are A2PS (comp.sources.unix archives like gatekeeper.dec.com) and mpage... +-----All Views Expressed Are My Own And Are Not Necessarily Shared By------+ +------------------------------My Employer----------------------------------+ + Ronald S. Woan woan@peyote.cactus.org or woan%austin@iinus1.ibm.com + + other email addresses Prodigy: XTCR74A Compuserve: 73530,2537 +
rudy@chukran.austin.ibm.com (10/17/90)
I havent done this, but a place to start is to configure the laserwriter as a 4216-031, which is also a Postscript printer that supports HP, Diablo, and IBM PC emulation. When you configure the virtual printer for this device, you are given options to configure queues for Postscript, HP, Diablo, and ascii. My understanding is that the backend does not translate from these streams, but instead, sends a prep string (in Postscript no doubt) that kicks the printer into the proper emulation mode. Since the Laserwriter has these same emulation modes, the technique of mode switching is probably the same, but the details of the data sequence to do the switching is probably different. Perhaps your printer manual tells you how to do this (other than setting hardware switches) and I suspect you will have to understand Postscript language to make it happen. ********************************************************************* IBM AIX Porting Center | RSCS: CHUKRAN at AUSTIN 11400 Burnet Rd. | AWDnet: rudy@chukran.austin.ibm.com Internal ZIP 2830 | internet: chukran@austin.iinus1.ibm.com Austin, Texas 78758 | Voice: 512-838-4674 Tieline: 678-4674 *********************************************************************