Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucsd!nprdc!malloy
From: malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: advice w/ laser printers
Message-ID: <6728@skinner.nprdc.arpa>
Date: 29 Mar 90 15:34:47 GMT
References: <260E56F7.4467@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca> <FJVRg1w161w@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us>
Reply-To: malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy)
Organization: Navy Personnel R&D Center, San Diego
Lines: 42

In article <FJVRg1w161w@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us> mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst) writes:
>If you'll be doing a LOT of PostScript printing, you might be better off
>getting a PostScript printer and then buying a HP->PS translator program
>for the programs that support HP output but not PS output
>
>If you're not going to be doing a lot of PostScript, then I might
>question why you're even considering something like GoScript.  As
>Mr. Dunn observed (in a part I deleted), unless you have a fast
>386+387 and at least 1MB extended memory, GoScript is going to be
>really, really slow.  REALLY slow.  Interpreting PostScript code
>is a very processor-intensive task; that's why printers that
>support PostScript, like the Apple LaserWriter NTXSDGLKJ (or whatever
>letter sequence they're using this week) include on-board 68000's or
>68010's.

Not true. The lack of a coprocessor is normally not noticeable when printing
text documents, where a small set of fonts and sizes is used. Only when the
files to be printed include a significant fraction of graphics operations,
or _large_ numbers of font and size changes, does a coprocessor
significantly improve performance.

And a dedicated PostScript printer isn't necessarily the fastest way to
print your file. I recently created a PostScript file that took over 20
minutes on a LaserWriter (I don't know how much over it would take, because
I killed the print job due to jobs backing up in the queue) that took less
than a minute on my home system (386+387) with GoScript. If you're
interested in seeing the file, send me e-mail; it's less than 2K of
straight PostScript commands with no bitmap imaging at all (repeated
outlined text with scaling, offsets, and rotation is all it does). 

From my observations comparing my home system running GoScript with the
Laserwriters at work, running straight text output there isn't a lot of
speed difference (remember, I have a 'fast 386+387'); however, as soon as a
significant amount of graphics get added, my home system will blow away the
Laserwriter. Why Apple didn't include a floating point processor in their
printer is a mystery.


 Sean Malloy                                   | "The Crystal Wind is the
 Navy Personnel Research & Development Center  | Storm, and the Storm is Data,
 San Diego, CA 92152-6800                      | and the Data is Life."
 malloy@nprdc.navy.mil                         | -- _Emerald Eyes_, D.K. Moran