Path: utzoo!censor!comspec!humvax!becker!hybrid!scifi!bywater!uunet!bfmny0!tneff From: tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff) Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript Subject: Re: "Compatibility" (was Re: Why Postscript?) Message-ID: <56449549@bfmny0.BFM.COM> Date: 13 Jan 91 09:42:10 GMT References: <89493019@bfmny0.BFM.COM> <1991Jan12.223851.1@linus.claremont.edu> Reply-To: tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff) Distribution: comp.lang.postscript Lines: 34 In article <1991Jan12.223851.1@linus.claremont.edu> dhosek@linus.claremont.edu (Don Hosek) writes: >In article <89493019@bfmny0.BFM.COM>, tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff) writes: >> If you are starting from scratch, you can buy an NEC or Texas >> Instruments PostScript printer with HP emulation also built in. > >Be wary about this. If one is doing sophisticated HP usage, it >turns out that most "compatibles" fail the test. A couple years >back, a university in England tested all the so-called >compatibles and found that only the genuine HP machines passed >the test. If you're tempted to get a clone of anything, make sure >that you try before you buy. Detailed discussion of HP emulations is not really a PostScript topic. Nevertheless... 1. The overall quality of HP emulations has gone up in the last couple of years. There is adequate technical documentation for everyone to be sure what behavior is required, and the LaserJet clone market has blossomed. Whatever clone printers some English academics were able to procure in 1988, you probably couldn't buy today. 2. I have a TI PS35 sitting right here. I have thrown all the HP files I know of at it, and it behaves exactly like a LaserJet Series II. There may be some lurking quirks, but I can't find them with normal use. 3. Nor is the average user likely to find any, simple because, given the choice of PostScript or HP at the flick of a button, most complex jobs are much better done with PostScript. HP is for when you HAVE to be a LaserJet for someone's hardcoded program or preformatted file. -- A doubled signature is the devil's work. ** Tom Neff -- A doubled signature is the devil's work. ** Tom Neff