🚀 go-pugleaf

We've been having quite a bit of difficulty and runarounds from
Interleaf, specifically when using Imagen printers (which are listed
as supported in their documentation).  I wonder if others have had
these problems, or created any work-arounds that might be of use
until Interleaf comes up with a viable solution.

We have been using Interleaf TPS for the past few years on Sun2 and
(more recently) Sun3 workstations, in conjunction with QMS/Imagen laser
printers (2308 and 3320), (CX printers, to Interleaf).  When using Interleaf
3.0.X on our older Sun2's, we would routinely loose jobs that were printed,
especially if the printers were being used via the normal BSD spooler.

Recently, we find the same behavior on our new Sun3 systems running
Interleaf's 4.0.65 release.  It looks as though the Interleaf-supplied
"eicat" program (to talk to the Imagens via Ethernet TCP/IP) does not
retry if the printer is busy or offline, so the jobs just go away.
Dedicating an Imagen to each Interleaf user is out of the question.
(If we had the source to this program, it would be a trivial fix).

Interleaf Support's (predictable) answer after two months is that
there is a special Interleaf->Imagen support software that is to be
used instead of the normal Interleaf->Imagen support software that:
	(a) fixes this problem, and
	(b) costs a meager $2500.00 in addition to the $15,000 for full TPS.

There's gotta be a better way! Any ideas, (besides Framemaker, that is)?
-- 
Ralph Shaw,	 ras@quahog.ssd.ray.com
Raytheon Co,	 Submarine Signal Division., Portsmouth, RI 02871