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From: reid@wrl.dec.com (Brian Reid)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Problems with non DEC PostScript printer
Keywords: PostScript,DEC,QMS,Printer
Message-ID: <1990Sep22.235343.2162@wrl.dec.com>
Date: 22 Sep 90 23:53:43 GMT
References: <1364@nadia.stgt.sub.org>
Sender: news@wrl.dec.com (News)
Distribution: comp
Organization: DEC Western Research
Lines: 37

In article <1364@nadia.stgt.sub.org> bulli@nadia.stgt.sub.org (Thomas Bullinger) writes:
>
>I want to connect a QMS PS-810 PostScript printer to a VAX. Therefore
>I have bought the software "Ansi-Sixel etc." from DEC which also contains
>a print symbiont (=driver) for PostScript. It works fine with an original
>DEC LN 03R, but connecting the QMS instead will result in - nothing is
>printed.
>
>I checked the documentation for the DEC software and found out that the
>print symbiont sends a prologue to the printer everytime it has to do its
>job. Within this prologue there is a check for the printer's password.
>
>Unfortunately the QMS printer uses another password than the LN 03R.

PostScript printers shipped by DEC use the model number of the printer as the
default password, and passwords are strings. For example, the password of an
LN03R is (LN03R).

TRhe QMS PS810 uses an integer 0 as its default password.

The snippet of code that you posted to the net looks to me as though it is
expecting the printer password to be pushed onto the PS stack before it is
executed. This means that the symbiont is pushing some password before 
calling it.

If this were my problem, I'd handle it by prefixing the fancy code with this:
	pop 0
which pops the (character string) password put there by the symbiont and then
puts an integer 0 on the stack in its stead.

Actually, what I would really do would be to change the password of my
printer to some number besides zero, and not post that number to the net, and
then put
	pop 123435
or something like that.

Brian Reid