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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.periphs
Subject: Re: HP LaserJet, a quick look
Message-ID: <4462@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 15-Oct-84 13:09:28 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.4462
Posted: Mon Oct 15 13:09:28 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 15-Oct-84 13:09:28 EDT
References: <4434@utzoo.UUCP>, <217@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 48

> > There are mumbles about math fonts, and we're
> > prodding the local HP man about 12-pitch fonts, but no details yet.
> 
> I also have heard little more than mumbles about the math font.

Latest word:  math fonts expected by January, 12-pitch sooner than that.

> ...  Plus, with some effort, you can feed it in-line raster-graphics.
> An entire font would be a lot of work (for the programer, cpu, and laserjet),
> but a few 'extensions' to a standard font would be no real problem.

Bear in mind that the LaserJet has serious limits on how much raster
graphics can appear on a page.  Sprinklings of non-standard characters
shouldn't be a grave problem, but I doubt very much that you could get
a whole page of text in a non-standard font into the raster memory.

> > 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.  As much as a replacement for dasiywheels,
> it is a replacement for dot-matrix, and many of those require 8 bit
> data.  In any case, the laserjet has a 56k buffer, and prints at a very
> constant 8 ppm, so it should be easy enough to spoon feed it through the
> printer daemon if you had to.

True, System N will give you independent control of path width and flow
control.  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.

Spoon-feeding it with a daemon is not an answer.  It is not easy to do
flow control in a daemon -- try it sometime, you need better IPC between
the sender and the listener than standard Unix has.

> > ...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.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry