Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!usc!sdd.hp.com!sdd.hp.com!tony
From: tony@sdd.hp.com (Tony Parkhurst)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.printers
Subject: Re: Found a bug in all Laserjets (??)
Message-ID: <1991Mar12.154233@sdd.hp.com>
Date: 12 Mar 91 23:42:33 GMT
References: <1991Mar12.201750.28016@unixg.ubc.ca>
Sender: news@sdd.hp.com (Usenet News)
Reply-To: tony@sdd.hp.com (Tony Parkhurst)
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, San Diego Division
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In article <1991Mar12.201750.28016@unixg.ubc.ca>, twong@civil.ubc.ca (Thomas Wong) writes:
|> If someone sets a landscape font on the Laserjets panel, or sets
|> orientation=L on Laserjet III, the graphics no work. And since Lotus
|> 123 is used extensively here, printing of worksheet in landscape mode
|> is a common thing. Then when someone sets thing back to portrait on
|> the printer side, things work again. We've tested this on all our
|> Laserjets and the same thing happens (some have garbage printout
|> instead of blank sheet or 21 ERROR though). So I think we've found
|> a bug in the way Laserjet does things. I can't see why this won't
|> work. And I can't understand why it hasn't been detected/fixed by
|> Laserjet III. Can others please confirm this bug?

Why do you assume that this is a bug?  The manual says that graphics are
not supported while in Landscape mode.  How do you think it should behave?

The problem is that the LaserJet people put a lot of effort in allowing
users to set defaults to be whatever they want, instead of always
requiring drivers (and applications) to properly configure the printer.
So, it seems that all your graphics applications just ASSUME that the
printer is in portrait mode (instead of setting it), and just blindly
send graphics.  Is this the fault of the printer?

Why are you allowing users to alter the configuration of printers that hang
off a network?  The spooler should be controlling all the settings as
needed.  When a Lotus job is finished (or aborted), the spooler should
reset the printer.


|> Then we can decide to flame HP or not. ;)

Go ahead, but this looks too much like pilot error.

PS:  Although I do work for HP, I do not work for the division responsible
for LaserJets.

--
		Tony Parkhurst	( tony@sdd.HP.COM )

"free people need no drug laws" -- James A. Parker