🚀 go-pugleaf

   We are currently supporting a number of PostScript laser printers by
means of 3270 to Centronix protocol converters. PostScript printers are
designed to use a two-way communications path. We are discovering that
it is extremely awkward to make do with an output-only communications
path. There seems to be no really good way to do accounting without
two-way communications. We think two-way communications would also
facilitate keeping track of downloaded fonts and would make problem
determination easier in some cases.
   We have several kinds of interfaces on our VM/XA SP 2.1 system that
offer at least some hope of supporting two-way communications: 7171s, a
3725 running EP, and IBM TCP/IP with an 8232 (soon to be replaced by a
3172, if IBM ever stops missing scheduled delivery dates for the 3172).
All of the PostScript printers we have or are likely to buy in the
future have AppleTalk and RS-232C interfaces. Many have RS-422 as well.
   Can anyone suggest a means of providing fast, reliable, two-way
communications to a PostScript printer with one of the interfaces
mentioned above? In this context 'fast' means a minimum of several
thousand bytes per second. We would prefer an even higher speed; our
printers are generally rated at twenty pages per minute or above, and a
significant part of our workload consists of dense graphics.
   At present an Ethernet to AppleTalk gateway strikes us as the most
promising possibility.