🚀 go-pugleaf

Hi Charles - Long time no speak!  Re printing to 2200/xxx line printers from
a Sun network... Do you have a connection (directly or indirectly) from your
2200 to the Sun network?  If you've got a U6000 in the mix, this is a pretty
simple thing to solve.  If not, it's still solvable, but not as pretty.  Here
we go with some examples I've implemented at other places during my life as a 
Unisys and unix hack:

1. U6000 solution: Put a U6000 in connection to your 2200 network.  Use either
   Ethernet or comm DCA, doesn't matter.  Software required in U6000 is IS6000
   and software required in 2200 is DDP-FJT (because DDP-PPC is now part of 
   the base O/S per last USE conference Q&A).  Then implement a print queue in
   the Sun boxes that fires a shell that actually copies the printfile from 
   the Sun box to the U6000 box, and then remote shells into the ISSPOOL
   program (part of IS6000).  Use of this method keeps you from having to run
   both DDPFJT and DDPPS as background runs in the 2200; you only need the
   DDPFJT stuff (use of DDPPS would mean using ISSYM instead of ISSPOOL, else
   the scenario remains the same).  I've got this in a client's shop that is
   HW:Solborne/Sun/Dell/Pyramid, SW:SunOS/SVR4, and they love it - nobody
   prints large stuff on the Unix side anymore, it's all line print output
   now.  Down side of this is that the darned S/W is *expensive*, and that
   you need a *U6000* box in the mix.  If you've got a SPO, however, you've
   already got both Unix parts, so it's a no-cost solution other than the
   darned host software.

2. Non-U6000 Case: Still need connection to the 2200 somehow.  With a LAN
   connection and DDN2200, you can set up the Sun queues to fire an FTP up
   and slap the printfile into the 2200 using a unique filename pattern.
   Then you slap together a small background run that scans for files of
   that pattern, and enqueues the files into their patterns' associated
   2200 print queues.  This is not a cheap solution, however, because the
   software is *still expensive*.  You might be able to pull this off with
   one of the UPLI packages, the TCP/IP 1100 FTP service which is buried in
   the last UOM Distribution Tape.  This would require a BTI box, which is
   the same thing as an HLC (made by Bus Tech Indistries, same folks that make
   the original HLC for unisys and the CPA for STK) but costs a lot less, and
   a BMX connection to hang it on.

Anyway, this is just a couple of ideas.  There are others (e.g. PCPRINT and
smart printers and the like), but all of this just supports my read of the
Open Systems thrust that Unisys and so many others are embarked on these
days:  THE PROBLEM IS NOT FINDING A SOLUTION, OR THE MYTHICAL RIGHT SOLUTION,
BUT JUST PICKING ONE OF THE POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS AND THEN MAKING IT STICK.

Gee, sounds like I'm gonna be doing this for a while!

Cheers, Walt.