Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!intercon!news
From: amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: 7 vits vs. 8 bits (again)
Message-ID: <268C0233.50F0@intercon.com>
Date: 30 Jun 90 01:36:51 GMT
References: <2414@acorn.co.uk> <1990Jun23.184530.1326@cbnewsl.att.com> <184@heaven.woodside.ca.us> <1363@chinacat.Unicom.COM> <1990Jun27.201333.10418@utzoo.uucp> <3439@adobe.UUCP>
Sender: usenet@intercon.com (USENET The Magnificent)
Reply-To: amanda@mermaid.intercon.com (Amanda Walker)
Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation, Herndon, VA
Lines: 23

In article <3439@adobe.UUCP>, shore@adobe.com (Andrew Shore) writes:
> Serial IP is another good idea.  Whose flavor of SLIP do you like?
> Or should we have waited for PPP?  Or invented our own?

Personally, I always thought that Apple LocalTalk was an excellent choice.
The biggest problem with it is that nothing much speaks it except Macintoshen
and PCs, but it does all of the things that people seem to want: error
checking, out-of-band job control/flow control/status reporting, 8-bit
transparency, and speed.

For a minimal-hardware printer like a LW, it's nice.  Now, what I think
would be ideal for higher-end stuff like Linos or Varitypers would be
to use TCP/IP over Ethernet.

Unfortunately, though, async serial is the lowest common denominator.  As
soon as you layer a protocol on top of it, though, both sides have to speak
it, which would defeat Woody and others who want to convince the host that
it's talking to a Brand Y printer.

--
Amanda Walker
InterCon Systems Corporation
--