Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!texbell!ficc!peter
From: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: A real operating system ?
Keywords: future 1.5
Message-ID: <V=.1H:4ggpc2@ficc.uu.net>
Date: 2 Mar 90 04:10:39 GMT
References: <1383@Terra.cc.brunel.ac.uk> <25eda193.62e3@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU>
Reply-To: peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva)
Organization: Xenix Support, FICC
Lines: 48

In article <25eda193.62e3@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> jdudeck@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU (John R. Dudeck) writes:
> In my opinion, Minix is close to being a "real" OS.  Here is what I think
> it still lacks:
...
>    - Spooled printing.

That's a system program level sort of thing, not part of the O/S. I'm sure you
could implement spooled printing for a single-system single-printer environment
in a day. Hell, the following code would do just fine for many folks:

---lpr---
NEXT=`cat /usr/spool/lp/.next`
if [ 0 = $# ]
then
  cat > /usr/spool/lp/D.$NEXT
  set /usr/spool/lp/D.$NEXT
fi
echo $* > /usr/spool/lp/C.$NEXT
NEXT=`expr $NEXT + 1`
echo $NEXT >> /usr/spool/lp/.next
---lpq---
ls /usr/spool/lp |
  while read X
  do echo "$X\t`cat /usr/spool/lp/$X`"
  done
---lpd---
touch /usr/spool/lp/.run
while [ -f /usr/spool/lp/.run
do
  ls /usr/spool/lp/C.* |
    while read X
    do
      FILES=`cat /usr/spool/lp/$X`
      cat > /dev/lp << !
******************************************************************************
$FILES
******************************************************************************
\f
!
      for FILE in $FILES
      do
	cat $FILE > /dev/lp
	echo \f >/dev/lp
      done
      rm -f $X `echo $X | sed 's/C/D/'`
    done
  sleep 1
done
-- 
 _--_|\  Peter da Silva. +1 713 274 5180. <peter@ficc.uu.net>.
/      \
\_.--._/ Xenix Support -- it's not just a job, it's an adventure!
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