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From: laser-lovers@ucbvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.computers.laser-printers
Subject: Re: Printing DVI on a Xerox 2700
Message-ID: <8601190144.AA14698@ucbvax.berkeley.edu>
Date: Sat, 18-Jan-86 20:44:43 EST
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8601190144.AA14698
Posted: Sat Jan 18 20:44:43 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 20-Jan-86 04:12:25 EST
References: <12175361911.19.DRF@SU-SCORE.ARPA>
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In article <12175361911.19.DRF@SU-SCORE.ARPA> is an article from:
>	-david "who is frustrated by the number of people who call up
>		and say `We just got our 2700, now how do we get TeX
>		output?' and has to gently tell them they're fools."
The author's mailing address got lost, so I'm sending to the list; sorry.
>-------
>The Xerox 2700 is a well-known disaster area.  
True, especially if you buy it as a DEC LN-01!
>It is unusable as anything other than a line-printer or daisy-wheel replacement.
This is not true, at least for the 2700 model II.
>
>1) Xerox does not provide users with the font format, so to download
>   fonts requires reverse-engineering the thing.  But even if you do...
It's available, if you're interested enough to pay the money for their
training courses, and willing to sign ugly non-disclosure agreements;
the only people I know who've done so are vendors of typesetting
software packages.  This also affects the 9700..
>.....
>3) There isn't enough flexibility in the control electronics to place
>   characters where you want them on the page if you're doing anything
>   so common as trying to have a different amount of space between
>   words on different lines of text.
We get fairly good troff output using some unexciting software from
Image Network;  I'm more impressed with Textware International's troff
products but we knew someone who already had dealt with Image Network,
so it was more convenient for our purchasing lawyers.  I don't know if
anybody's ported TeX yet.  This is commercial software, and costs
non-trivial money, but the printer can do useful things.
>
>[More flames about the 2700 .... DEC LN01 ...]
>; DEC's LN03 machine is ok.)  It's fairly well-documented, but looks
ugly to do much more than line-printer and DEC-compatible graphics on.


-- 
# Bill Stewart, AT&T Bell Labs 2G-202, Holmdel NJ 1-201-949-0705 ihnp4!ho95c!wcs