[comp.sys.apple2] postscript word processor for IIGS

mspurgeo@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU (Mike Spurgeon) (02/07/91)

Don Lancaster has been using Applewriter (both DOS 3.3 & ProDOS, I
believe v2.1) for years to send raw postscript to laser printers.

If memory serves, he claims it beats _anything_.  Something like
56,000 baud out the serial port on a IIe.

Although his recent "Ask the Guru" columns in Computer Shopper are
more Mac oriented, you could check them out for appropriate addresses.

Mike Spurgeon
Internet: mspurgeo@oucsace.cs.ohiou.edu

toddpw@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Todd P. Whitesel) (02/07/91)

mspurgeo@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU (Mike Spurgeon) writes:

>Don Lancaster has been using Applewriter (both DOS 3.3 & ProDOS, I
>believe v2.1) for years to send raw postscript to laser printers.

Yes, but I don't think the PostScript files were generated by AppleWriter --
Lancaster is one of the few PostScript sensei's in existence. To read some
of his columns is to see PostScript explored as a language in itself and
not just 'the thing that makes the printer work'.

>If memory serves, he claims it beats _anything_.  Something like
>56,000 baud out the serial port on a IIe.

That's 57,600 baud out the game port. Lancaster wrote his own printer driver
that toggles one of the Announciator outputs so that it looks like the output
of a serial chip at 57K baud -- run this through an MC1488 or MAX232 and you
have a transmit-only serial port running at 57Kbps.

Lancaster's claim is that the AppleTalk protocols used by the printer in a
shared environment have so much overhead that the overall throughput is less
than a direct 57Kbps serial connection.

Todd Whitesel
toddpw @ tybalt.caltech.edu