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From: sjl@amdahl.UUCP (Steve Langdon)
Newsgroups: net.text,net.unix
Subject: Re: Troff for the HP LaserJet
Message-ID: <3292@amdahl.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 1-Jun-86 17:12:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: amdahl.3292
Posted: Sun Jun  1 17:12:19 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 3-Jun-86 22:39:54 EDT
References: <196@bsdpkh.UUCP> <655@bu-cs.UUCP> <185@elan.UUCP> <477@hropus.UUCP>
Reply-To: sjl@amdahl.UUCP (Steve Langdon)
Organization: Amdahl Corp, Advanced Systems Planning
Lines: 55
Keywords: LaserJet DWB troff PIC ELAN
Xref: linus net.text:1017 net.unix:7327
Summary: Ask more than one user before judging software

In article <477@hropus.UUCP> jrw@hropus.UUCP (Bill Rieken) writes:

[responding to information that ELAN offers a supported version of DWB]

> Ask a person who owns one.

I would suggest you ask a few other users before accepting this casual put-down.

> 	1)  ELAN's  DWB  software is no better than AT&T's.
> 
> 	    AT&T's  DWB  prints just fine on my lj+.

Note the use of lj+.  I believe that the ELAN product supports both the lj and
the lj+.  I would also like to get a better definition of what "prints just
fine" means.  It seems odd that ELAN and at least one other company would
spend a fair amount of effort on support of this printer if AT&T supported
it in the standard DWB distribution.

> 	2)  ELAN's 'pic' can only print trivial diagrams.
> 
> 	    Four elipses with eight arrow arcs caused "error 21"
> 	    (the page formatting process is not fast enough for
> 	     the printer) on my lj+.
> 
> AUTOCAD, on the other hand, generates top-quality Space Shuttle graphics
> on the same printer!

This appears to be a marvelous example of using an apparently relevant example
to try and get people to accept what are probably false conclusions.  Bill
Rieken may be wasted in the computer field when he has such promise as a
politician.

A few points that readers might want to consider:

	1) Why is the comparison not made to AT&T's DWB?  Does it support
	   PIC on the lj or lj+?

	2) The example chosen may well be close to the worst case for the
	   printer.  I suspect that ellipses and arcs have to be drawn point
	   by point while other simpler shapes can use higher level commands.

	3) What are "Space Shuttle graphics"?  It sounds impressive, but it
	   is rather hard to tell exactly what is being described.  I have seen
	   the ELAN product do a nice job of printing Mac generated graphics
	   on a lj (a copy of Escher's waterfall picture).

I have no connection with ELAN.  Ken Greer (the owner) used to work here at
Amdahl as a consultant.  This allowed me to see some of the results of ELAN's
package even though we do not use it.

-- 
Stephen J. Langdon                  ...!{ihnp4,cbosgd,hplabs,sun}!amdahl!sjl

[ The article above is not an official statement from any organization
  in the known universe. ]