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From: wieland@ea.ecn.purdue.edu (Jeffrey J Wieland)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo,comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Need printcap entry for HP LaserjetII
Keywords: printcap laserjet postscript
Message-ID: <1991Mar29.144612.15984@noose.ecn.purdue.edu>
Date: 29 Mar 91 14:46:12 GMT
References: <1991Mar26.192957.1@imecom.imec.be> <1118@eba.eb.ele.tue.nl>
Sender: root@noose.ecn.purdue.edu (ECN System Management)
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network
Lines: 38

In article <1118@eba.eb.ele.tue.nl> wjw@ebf.eb.ele.tue.nl (Willem Jan Withagen) writes:
>
>Then we added a postscript emulation cartridge and that's were
>the real misery started.
>
>The problem as more to do with the postscript cartridge than with
>running Apollo's.
>
>Problem description:
>	When running files of a queue, which are mixed postscript
>	and PCL there have to be switches from PS <-> PCL.
...
>
>	This results in very wrong printing, to say the least.
>
>Real fix:
>	Block the traffic to the printer after a switch, until it
>	has switched. The problem is that a PS page could take
>	days to print, so doing this on the computer side does not
>	really compute.

We are using a Laserjet II with the Adobe cartridge, driving it from
an AT&T 3B2/500.  We also wanted to be able to switch modes.  What
I do is after each postscript print job, wait until the printer
returns the "idle" message to a status request (^T).  After that,
it is safe to switch modes.  You may be able to do the same thing
with the Pacific Data cartridge.

When we switch from PCL to PS, the spooler waits until it gets the
"Idle" messeage before sending the files to be printed.  We can't
do the same thing for switching the other way, so instead it
sleeps for 50 seconds when switching from PS to PCL.

This is System V machine -- what we are doing won't work for your
spooler -- but, perhaps it will point you in the right direction.
--
			    Jeff Wieland
			wieland@acn.purdue.edu