Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!grian.UUCP!alex
From: alex@grian.UUCP (Alex Pournelle)
Newsgroups: comp.laser-printers
Subject: Wanted: Info on Xerox 2700 laser-printers
Message-ID: <9002072153.AA21380@crayola.cs.UMD.EDU>
Date: 24 Jan 90 08:38:04 GMT
References: <9001191723.AA04477@crayola.cs.UMD.EDU>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: Workman & Associates
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Approved: laser-lovers@brillig.umd.edu

>	We currently are using a Xerox 2700 laser printer. We need to
>	find a comparable replacement printer which will support "troff" 
>	at 20-30ppm. 

There's nothing like simultaneous spontaneous synchronicity, and this is
definitely a case!

Just this Saturday, I proudly *bought* a Xerox 2700 II (which may be a
different beast, but I suspect not radically so) for an unrefuseable
price.  Silly me, I dragged the thing off to work and called Xorex.

Well, after talking to 11 people in 9 different offices (at least
Xeroids are helpful!) I have one basic question: does anyone know how to
make this thing useful to general human beings?  I'd like to publish my
desktop from it, preferably from both PC and Mac.

What follows is a short summary of what I've found so far, which you can
press "n" to blow by if you like.  But, please, any and all info on this
beastie (beyond what's here) is welcome.

Post or mail?  Well, shux, if two people have the same kinda problem,
then maybe *3* do!

	Alex

Hmm, well, I opened 'er up, and it's got an 8086, an 8089, a
Centronics/parallel port and some memory, plus
a font rack (with XCP 14--ugh, your basic utility print-out font) that
can be locked.  And only 10,000 impressions (!), which is nothing for
this box.

After some discussions with a Xeroid-friend (who happens to be writing
an emulator for this particular printer--will wonders never cease!),
I've found that it uses "UDK", User-Definable Kommands, which are
neither fish, flesh, Terence nor interPRESS compatible.  No, it's
another, incompatibobble, Xerox "standard" command set, pretty easy to
use if you can type in ASCII but not what I bought this beastie for.

Obviously, I'd like to PostScript or the like with it--a 24-page engine
is a hard thing to waste--and I know that QMS has/had a PS box for the
2400, which at least is within hand-grenade range of this 'un.  (I have
my local QMS salesman checking for me, and The Printer Works has nothing
applicable.)

So, the options as I see them:

--Only use a certain DTP program which may soon support this particular
command set.
--Find a "Freedom Of The Press" or UltraScript for it  (which would
require more memory; anyone know about adding RAM?)
--Find a board-replacement set for it; one's available for the 2400 and
3700, why not the 2700?
--Hack my own driver for it (sure, and do YOU have the time?)
--Give it up as a bad job, which I really don't want to do.

I am quite open to suggestions, 'cuz this is a real workhorse of an
engine.  Visions of 20 PS pages a minute are tantalizingly close...

		Avidly,
			Alex