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From: info-mac@uw-beaver
Newsgroups: fa.info-mac
Subject: Printing transferred files
Message-ID: <121@uw-beaver>
Date: Fri, 7-Dec-84 05:19:27 EST
Article-I.D.: uw-beave.121
Posted: Fri Dec  7 05:19:27 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Dec-84 04:59:26 EST
Sender: daemon@uw-beaver
Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
Lines: 30

From: ALLEN@BBNF.ARPA

I'm probably missing something obvious, but I'll proceed to trot out my
ignorance in public anyway.

I've got the following problem: I have a file, created on a Tops20
system with Scribe, that I would like to print. It is short enough
that printing it on my Mac's printer is a reasonable thing to do.
Given that the Macprinter is on my desk and the Tops20 printer is 5
floors down makes it a desirable thing to do. Now I just have to
figure out how. My first feeble attempt consists of causing the Tops20
system to type the file at MacTerminal (which I've asked to remember
the lines off the screen), selecting and printing.  This doesn't work
because, being Scribe lineprinter output, there are isolated CRs for
overstriking and other control sequences that make a mess on a VT100
screen, which the Mac faithfully reproduces on paper. My next try
consists of XMODEMing the file to the Mac (there's another story here,
which I won't bore you with), which I succeed in doing, only to find
that there's no way that I've been able to discover to print the
resulting file. Selecting the file in the Finder and then clicking on
PRINT results in a complaint that there is no application available
that knows about my file. Consulting local Mac wizards gets me the
response that I've got to use some obscure system-level tools (Set
File??)  to mung file descriptor bits to associate the file with an
application that might know how to print it, like MacWrite. Surely
this is not in the MacIntosh spirit, nor does it seem to me that what
I'm trying to do should be this hard.  If I've missed something
obvious, break it to me gently; if not, anyone got a bright idea?

/Don Allen