[H-GEN] Postscript Printers

James McPherson jmcp at fodder.Aus.Sun.COM
Sun May 27 08:16:41 EDT 2001


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On Sun, 27 May 2001, Jason Henry Parker wrote:
> On Sun, May 27, 2001 at 05:19:13PM +1000, Frank Brand wrote:
> > John Duncan wrote:
> > >                   It seems like less gymnastics would be needed for BSD
> > >style printing if I get a postscript printer.
> > >Could anyone give a good report on any low-end postscript printer? I am
> > >only using LaTeX and groff so nothing fancy is needed.
> > Well if you have a supported printer and use something like ghostscript I
> > don't think it is going to make a great deal of difference.
> 
> John, if you're only using LaTeX and groff, they can both produce
> excellent postscript output on their own (indeed, this is the preferred
> method of printing both formats)[1].

All hail LaTeX and its variants thereof.... I've written many thousands of
words with it to date, and revel in its elegance and simplicity.
 
[snip]
> Oh, now as regards printing software:  In my opinion, BSD lpd is a piece
> of crap; I always junk it as fast as possible and install LPRng instead.
> It's slightly more hassle to configure[2], but it's awfully convenient
> and much better written.

<hobbyhorse><rant>
Yeah, well have a go at configuring SYSV printing ala Solaris 2.5++ - it
is well and truly on the path to hades. Filters, forms, font sets, no
_supported_ re-queueing of processed input to anything, and badly documented
to boot. This is why there exists LPRng, Vividata's product and jetadmin.
In comparison, bsd lpd was/is a breeze to configure and get working.

>From my end though, the way forward is by submitting RFEs and caning the
lp developers - adding my voice to the many thousands who have already bitched
to high heaven about how badly misdesigned and misfeatured SYSV's lp system 
is.

</rant></hobbyhorse>

regards,
James C. McPherson

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