Xref: utzoo comp.lang.postscript:6547 alt.sys.sun:1874
Path: utzoo!utgpu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!usaos!wsrcc!wolfgang
From: wolfgang@wsrcc.uucp (Wolfgang S. Rupprecht)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript,alt.sys.sun
Subject: Genuine Adobe on HP-II
Message-ID: <1990Oct30.200442.5246@wsrcc.uucp>
Date: 30 Oct 90 20:04:42 GMT
Sender: wolfgang@wsrcc.uucp (Wolfgang S. Rupprecht)
Organization: Wolfgang S Rupprecht Computer Consulting, Washington DC.
Lines: 65


I just got me Genuine Adobe Postscript cartridge for my HP-II.  Wow,
what a lot of nice looking packaging and brochures.  I'm impressed.

Now for the observations.  Adobe gives you an HP cartridge.  Its easy
to figure out what to do with that.  They also give you a pile of 
messy-dos disks.  Huh?  How do I feed this to my SPARC? ;-)

As far a I can tell there is a lot of hemming and hawing in the
documentation about running it with Lotus this and Microsoft that.
Problem is, there *isn't* a scratch of information about the basics.
Eg. What do I send down the line to get the printer to toggle between
Postscript and HP modes.  Adobe says there is an IBM PC program on one
of the disks to do just that.  Surely Adobe isn't planning on making
us all buy a PC emulator just to run their cartridge.  Anyone know
where I can get a little *real* documentation?

Now for the technical problems:

When I tip to the printer from the SPARC (SLC/SunOS 4.0.3 in case it
matters) I can issue the command "executive\n".  I get the start of
the startup banner, and then blam! Control-G battles flair.  Nice to
see that two toys get along so well together. ;-) I assume this is the
result of some sort of ^S-^Q war that escalates and overflows a stack.

  PS>quit^M
  PostScript(r) Version 52.3^M
  Copyright (c) 19^C^M
  PS>^M
  PS>^M
  PS>foo^M
  %%[ Error: undefined; OffendingCommand: foo ^G^G^^M
  %%[ Error: limitcheck; OffendingCommand: ^G^G^G^G^M
  %%[ Error: limitcheck; OffendingCommand: ^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^M
  %%[ Error: limitcheck; OffendingCommand:^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G 
  ^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G
  ^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G
  ^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G
  ^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G^G ]%%^M
  PS>^C^M
  PS>^M
  PS>quit^M

  (the line of ^G's was broken up by hand - it was all on one line)

Anyone have any experience with this?  I did notice that he only way
to get this guy unwedged is with a ^C sent down the line.

Any error would print the first error "Error: undefined; ..." and then
continue with an infinite chorus of "Error: limitcheck; ...".  Hmm.

I'm stumpted.  The Sun isn't normally echoing anything down the line.
Tip is being run with no parity.  It isn't a case of a totally broken
cartridge.  The postscript works quite will when hooked up directly to
a wyse-75.  (Wyse-75's are very fast terminals though.)  Perhaps the
Sun is sending too many ^S's to the printer?  I wonder if the
printer's uart is getting a data overrun from all the ^S flung it's
way?  Could this data overrun is interpreted as a bad command?

Questions/answers, anyone?

-wolfgang
-- 
Wolfgang Rupprecht    uunet!wsrcc!wolfgang (or) wsrcc!wolfgang@uunet.uu.net
Snail Mail Address:   Box 6524, Alexandria, VA 22306-0524