🚀 go-pugleaf

Dave Neff (hp-pcd!hpvcfs1!neff@hplabs.hp.COM) writes:

>> Why is the LaserWriter type "remembered" when power is turned off to
>> the printer?  Is this really necessary or is this just a side effect
>> of the battery backed up RAM in the LaserWriter?  This seems like a
>> dubious "feature" or am I missing something?

Dave,
	Well, I suppose one could argue the point, but it never seemed strange
to me.  After all, just because the most common use of a LaserWriter involves
having its NBP type be "LaserWriter" doesn't mean it always will; why force
someone who wants to use it differently to have to reset the name every time
the printer is restarted?  If the printer is usually under the control of
a spooler, it may as well have its name "permanently" set to the alternate
type the spooler expects.

>> How are people "poking" out postscript commands to the LaserWriter? 

The simplest thing to do is to change the LaserWriter communication protocol
to serial and plug a terminal into the serial port (make sure you disconnect
the AppleTalk cable first, though!).  Then type in 'executive' (it will not
be echoed) to start up the interactive mode line editor in the interpreter.
If this is a pain because of logistics, then you need something that will
communicate via the AppleTalk protocol PAP (Printer Access Protocol).  The
simplest thing in this category is to get a copy of Adobe's public-domain
program SendPS, which allows you to download a file to a LaserWriter (and
also get a font list and restart the printer).  You write your programs in
a text file, download them, and see the results in a log file SendPS creates.
Not great, but it works.  If you're doing a lot of work, you might want to
look into products like Emerald City's LaserTalk, which gives you an interactive
programming/debugging environment for the LaserWriter over AppleTalk (plus
extras like online descriptions of PostScript operators excerpted from the
red book, etc.)

A note: I have written my own implementation of the PAP protocol from the specs
in Inside AppleTalk.  There is an implementation in the LaserWriter driver, of
course (the famous PDEF 10), but Apple considers the interface unsupported so as
to allow for "future protocol enhancements" (or so I have been told by Developer
Technical Support).  With this, I have developed an application like LaserTalk
that I use for programming and managing our LaserWriters over AppleTalk.  It
also has other nice features like allowing you to do network name lookups and
initiate a connection to any device, by NBP name or network address.  This
obviates silly difficulties of not being able to get to a device just because
you've changed the name.  I am hoping to polish it up and place it in the public
domain this summer (if I get time).

                                                Richard Silverman

arpa:	rsilverman@eagle.wesleyan.edu           Computing Center
bitnet:	rsilverman@wesleyan                     Wesleyan University
CIS:	[72727,453]                             Middletown, CT 06457