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From: jab@ingres.com (jeff bowles)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Adobe Systems PostScript Cartridge
Message-ID: <1990Oct11.173027.26128@ingres.Ingres.COM>
Date: 11 Oct 90 17:30:26 GMT
References: <5612@kd4nc.UUCP> <34656@cup.portal.com> <103@gizzmo.UUCP> <1905@abvax.UUCP>
Reply-To: jab@crane.Ingres.COM (jeff bowles)
Organization: Ingres Corporation, Alameda CA 94501
Lines: 35

In article <1905@abvax.UUCP> jaz@icd.ab.com (Jack A. Zucker) writes:
>Pacific Data also sells Postscript cartridges for the IID and IIP and maybe
>some others. Does anyone have any experience with running a software based
>Postscript interpreter such as Ultrascript vs using a Postscript cartridge.
>
>I happen to have Postscript resident in my printer but am setting up a
>system for a friend who has the HP-IIP printer. We are both interested
>in software based previewing.

I used the Pacific Data Postscript cartridge for the II, which isn't the
same as their IIP cartridge, but suspect it's close enough for this
comparison:

	1. The marketing people for Pacific Data will be quick to tell
	   you that their product doesn't support the HP Appletalk interface.
	2. At least on the II, the cartridge is VERY SLOW compared to a
	   printer with Postscript designed into the thing. Moreover, the
	   printer would hang if you were using a parallel interface and
	   ran out of people, and wouldn't even accept an end-of-job (^D)
	   to flush its buffers. You'd have to power-cycle the printer, and
	   for the Novell Network it was attached to, that was a nuisance.
	3. Using a serial interface seemed to be okay if it's attached to
	   one machine, with one user who doesn't mind baby-sitting it. But
	   if it's in an unattended environment, I'd go for something that
	   supports the network interface (which implies multiple users and
	   hopefully less baby-sitting.)

Now that HP sells the Postscript cartridge, and it's "real" Adobe, it's
probably worth the time to get it from them. I heard Pacific Data say "well,
it's not our product that's screwing up - good luck finding the bug" too
many times to believe they'll support their products.

That doesn't quite answer your question, but does give you more data points.

	Jeff Bowles