nakamoto@joplin.mpr.ca (Alan Nakamoto) (06/12/91)
I was curious to see if anyone else is experiencing this problem and whether a solution is out there. Currently, we are using a HP Laserjet IIID with HP's postscript cartridge, HP's Appletalk Interface and 5 Mbs of RAm on a mixed localtalk network consisting of mostly Mac SE's and the printer is served by a Mac running Apple's print server software. The printer has performed well with every program that we have except Macdraw II vers 1.1B. WHen a file is sent to the laserjet it essentially hangs up. The printer continually displays "Processing Data" on the front panel and will remain that way until the offending file being sent to it gets removed from the queue and the printer reset. The strange thing is that nothing like this occurs under the same situation for MS Word, Excel, Filemaker II, Quickmail, or superpaint. Software-wise, all macs are running system 6.0.5 and using laser prep version 6.0 with laserjet IIID chooser document version 1.1. Any thoughts welcome, Thanks, Alan Nakamoto Pacific Microelectronics Centre (604)-293-6052 email : nakamoto@eric.mpr.ca OR uunet!ubc-cs!mpre!nakamoto
scasterg@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Stuart M Castergine) (06/12/91)
In article <1991Jun12.005757.4385@mprgate.mpr.ca> nakamoto@joplin.mpr.ca (Alan Nakamoto) writes: > >I was curious to see if anyone else is experiencing this problem and >whether a solution is out there. > >Currently, we are using a HP Laserjet IIID with HP's postscript cartridge, >HP's Appletalk Interface and 5 Mbs of RAm on a mixed localtalk network >consisting of mostly Mac SE's and the printer is served by a Mac running >Apple's print server software. > >The printer has performed well with every program that we have except >Macdraw II vers 1.1B. WHen a file is sent to the laserjet it essentially >hangs up. The printer continually displays "Processing Data" on the >front panel and will remain that way until the offending file being sent >to it gets removed from the queue and the printer reset. The strange >thing is that nothing like this occurs under the same situation for MS >Word, Excel, Filemaker II, Quickmail, or superpaint. > >Software-wise, all macs are running system 6.0.5 and using laser prep >version 6.0 with laserjet IIID chooser document version 1.1. > >Any thoughts welcome, I'm surprised I have seen this question more often. MacDraw II, one of the archetypal Mac Programs, the grandpa of all later and snazzier drawing programs, does not work reliably with any LaserWriter driver later than 5.2 This is an _old_ bug. It has been around every since LaserWriter 6.0 was released, which is what -- two, three years? You'd think that having such a close working relationship with Apple, Claris would have had the ability to fix this bug, that they would have released a bug fix. No, instead they make us wait for MacDraw Pro, which _still_ is not out. Canvas can print MacDraw II documents just fine. It is embarrassing that MacDraw II can't. Since I work for a newspaper, and most Associated Press Graphics arrive in MacDraw format, this has been a real problem for us. We have other applications (color RIPS and the like) that don't even support LaserWriter 5.2. > >Thanks, > >Alan Nakamoto >Pacific Microelectronics Centre >(604)-293-6052 > >email : nakamoto@eric.mpr.ca >OR uunet!ubc-cs!mpre!nakamoto -- scasterg@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Stuart M Castergine "Step by step they were led to practices which disposed to vice -- the lounge, the bath, the elegant banquet. All this in their ignorance they called civilisation, when it was but part of their servitude."
gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Don Gillies) (06/13/91)
I don't think the problem is that "MacDraw II does not work reliably with any laserwriter driver beyond 5.2". I have used MacDraw II for a long time with the 6.0.1 laserwriter drivers. I have never experienced problems. I believe the problem could be this. In many cases MacDraw II generates raw postscript. When it gets ready to print, it notices a laserwriter is attached, and bypasses some of the translation done by the lasewriter driver. Since it is printing using its own postscript primitives -- not the primitives used by the standard laserwriter translator. When MacDraw II emits these primitives, it is possible that your postscript interpreter will break. Under normal circumstances the interpreter never sees these primitives. MacDraw II used to break our interpreter on some pages, until we upgraded our printers to a better postscript interpreter. The problem is probably coming from your postscript cartridge. Don Gillies - gillies@cs.uiuc.edu - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign --