[fa.info-vax] LN01s

info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (10/26/84)

From: engvax!KVC@cit-vax

As I understand it, the DEC LN01S is a repackaged QMS laser printer.
If this is true, then the "beast" is incredibly useful.  We have
lots of QMS's here and love them.

For software support for the QMS, we went to a company called
Talaris systems in San Diego (La Jolla, actually).  They like to
sell you their version of the QMS called the Talaris 1200, but
we told them we already had a QMS and only bought software and
fonts.  (Since then, we've bought hardware and software from
them).  In any case, they provide several "support" packages for
the printer:

	TeXSupport comes with TeX (D. E. Knuth's typesetting
	package), LaTeX (easy to use macros for TeX), SliTeX
	(make slides using TeX), and loads of TeX fonts in QMS
	format.  This makes a wonderful high-quality document
	production system for VMS.

	They also can provide a graphics library for the QMS.
	The printer has Tektronix emulation, but that is very
	limited.  The Talaris library is a lot more useful, with
	stuff for area fill and a better character set than
	Tek mode.

	QDRIVE is an interesting program that combines TeX output
	with any QMS format file (such as a graph produced from the
	graphics library) allowing you to put complex pictures into
	TeX documents.  LaTeX does provide simple picture drawing
	within TeX, but complex graphics are usually produced by
	another program and then incorporated into the document
	with QDRIVE.

If the LN01S is really a QMS in disguise (that was the consensus of
a LASER-LOVERS discussion a few weeks back) then you may be able to
get software from Talaris.  You can also get TeX support for the QMS
(and therefore the LN01S) from Texas A&M University.  It isn't as complete
as the Talaris stuff, but is a lot cheaper ($100).  You may want to
get that first and then try Talaris if it doesn't do the job.  If you
need the address at Texas A&M, let me know and I'll dig it up.  You could
also send a message to the TEX-HAX mailing list if you can find out
what system that's on.

For anyone confused by this, please note that the LN01S is NOT the
same as the LN01.  In fact, as far as I can tell, the LN01 is almost
useless.  If the LN01S is NOT a QMS in disguise, then I apologise for
getting anyone's hopes up...

	/Kevin Carosso                    engvax!kvc @ CIT-VAX.ARPA
	 Hughes Aircraft Co.

info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (11/05/84)

From: Richard Furuta <Furuta@WASHINGTON.ARPA>

The Laser-Lovers list's consensus was that the LN01s uses the QMS
interface board but different microcode.  It is supposedly a superset
of the LN01, not of the various QMS machines.

					--Rick
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