Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxj!ihnp4!gargoyle!toby
From: toby@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP (Toby Harness)
Newsgroups: net.periphs
Subject: Re: HP LaserJet, a quick look
Message-ID: <219@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 16-Oct-84 13:16:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: gargoyle.219
Posted: Tue Oct 16 13:16:10 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 17-Oct-84 06:32:11 EDT
References: <4434@utzoo.UUCP>, <217@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP>, <4462@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: U. Chicago - Computer Science
Lines: 43

> > > The LaserJet *must* have a full 8-bit path...
> > > before you sign a PO, make very
> > > very sure that your Unix can give you a full 8-bit output path without
> > > resorting to raw mode (which deprives you of flow control).
> > 
> > But not, of course, with SYS III and later. (Note that HP`s HP-UX is
> > SYS III/V.)   However, HP did not come up with this to sell to unix sites,
> > but to offices with a pc or two...

> But you miss my point:  there are *many* systems, not just old
> Unixes, which can't give you that 8th bit.  Probably including a good
> number of micros.  This decision remains stupid.  As I commented, even the
> el cheapo dot-matrix jobs have a way to cope with a 7-bit data path.

OK, let`s put it this way: It seems clear that the LaserJet was designed to sit
next to a MS-DOS machine.  I am not very comfortable with dumping on the
designers of the LaserJet.  I do not think they made very many stupid decisions.
I think they (out-)did what they were told.  The marketing Dept. of HP,
however, has shown its usual short-sightedness in its failure to recognize 
that such a printer would have a much wider market than IBM-PC owners. 

What I am trying to say is "sure, your point is valid, but it`s not the
LaserJet`s fault."  It does what it was designed to do and works with the
equipment it was designed to work with.  That people want it to do other
things or work with other equipment is a favorable reflection on the LaserJet
and a less than favorable reflection on the people who proposed the inital
specs.


> > > ...Our $400 Geminis will do this, but the $4k LaserJet won't!
> > 
> > Talk to your HP rep; we paid  little more than $2K.

> The price is from our HP rep.  "$" doesn't automatically mean "US$",
> although USAnians seem to think so.

$(Canada)4k is still much more than $(USA)2k.

Honest, some of my best friends are Canadian. :-)


Toby Harness		Ogburn/Stouffer Center, University of Chicago
			...ihnp4!gargoyle!toby