Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!lll-winken!uunet!mcvax!ukc!icdoc!qmc-cs!liam
From: liam@cs.qmc.ac.uk (William Roberts)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.appletalk,comp.lang.postscript,comp.sys.mac,comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: postscript problem: LaserWriter vs. Imagen
Summary: Forget the whole idea
Keywords: LaserPrep, Imagen, PostScript
Message-ID: <900@sequent.cs.qmc.ac.uk>
Date: 3 Apr 89 18:50:32 GMT
References: <1635@ncar.ucar.edu>
Reply-To: liam@cs.qmc.ac.uk (William Roberts)
Organization: Computer Science Dept, Queen Mary College, University of London, UK.
Lines: 37
Expires:
Sender:
Followup-To:
Distribution:
Xref: utzoo comp.protocols.appletalk:1740 comp.lang.postscript:1876 comp.sys.mac:29495 comp.unix.wizards:15366

In article <1635@ncar.ucar.edu> era@ncar.UCAR.EDU (Ed Arnold) writes:
>We're having some problems with getting postscript files originally
>prepared on a Mac, to print on an Imagen (model 2308S, system version 4.0)
>running ultrascript.

>%%BeginProcSet: "(AppleDict md)" 68 0
>statusdict begin waittimeout 300 lt{0 60 300 setdefaulttimeouts}if end
>currentfile statusdict begin serverdict begin product (LaserWriter II NT*
>) eq revision 1 eq and {/setrealdevice {//setrealdevice exec 31 sendpcmd*
> 4 eq tonerlight} bind def
>/execjob {31 sendpcmd 4 eq tonerlight //execjob exec} bind def end end e*
>exec}{end end 722{currentfile read pop pop}repeat}ifelse
>35de8eabfc7fa5eac0431edc501ad43f5fcbdf9fdd321cce93b525f4439dd94696bf56ac*
>13a0a2aad1e6bcf444711e941d7217138d20ae0500145f815439cc14e697ad201df728ea*
>4ccad4ac331aa03a7aacde10760bf4ee12bbf73c77cdcbf1796f26f0dd255d2407e1ac41
...

I would conservatively estimate your chances of making this
work to be Zero, especially since you lack anyone who can
rewrite the LaserPrep file almost in its entirety.

The Apple LaserPrep file is a fiendish exercise is writing bad
PostScript; it is about as cuuningly and unnecessarily
non-portable as I can possibly imagine. Your problems will get
rather worse once you start hitting the eexec routines.

To have any chance with this stuff you will need to contact
Imagen and ask them how they justify having an AppleTalk
interface on their printer if it can't print Apple output: they
may have a new installable dictionary to side-step the latest
Apple trickery...
-- 

William Roberts         ARPA: liam@cs.qmc.ac.uk
Queen Mary College      UUCP: liam@qmc-cs.UUCP
190 Mile End Road       Tel:  01-975 5250
LONDON, E1 4NS, UK      Fax:  01-981 7517