Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!yale!bunker!stpstn!aad
From: aad@stpstn.UUCP (Anthony A. Datri)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Talaris view of PostScript
Message-ID: <1873@stpstn.UUCP>
Date: 15 Jul 88 18:18:54 GMT
References: <2273@pt.cs.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: aad@stpstn.UUCP (Anthony A. Datri)
Organization: The Stepstone Corporation, Sandy Hook, CT
Lines: 57

In article <2273@pt.cs.cmu.edu> moore@PULSAR.FAC.CS.CMU.EDU (Dale Moore) writes:
>
>Talaris - "The most common misconception that Talaris sees in the
>marketplace today is that a PostScript printer is the panacea that
>will solve all of the customer's problems.

True enough.

>PostScript not only
>doesn't provide application software compatibility but it also was
>not designed to operate efficiently in the multiuser computing
>environment.
I'd really love to hear an explanation of this one from them.

>There is very little VAX/VMS software that supports
>PostScript.  WPS-Plus, for example, does not support PostScript.
>Currently the only VAX/VMS application package that requires
>PostScript is Interleaf.

I'd say that *any* package that *required* *any* kind of a laser printer
was a lose.  Interleaf on our Suns works with an Imagen, but I didn't
even know they had it for VMS.

>Because PostScript was designed for single
>user desktop publishing, integrating PostScript into a multiuser
>VAX/VMS computing environment is acheived only at very high cost
>(such as with the $50,000 Digital PS-40) or with major sacrifice in
>performance."

I'm sure you're all echoing "Huh?" with me.  At Scribe Systems, we
had a VMS machine spooling two Postscript engines, usually a laserwriter
and a &$@$$* TI Omni.  Ran lpd on the machine and spooled to them from
pcs and suns.  Sounds pretty good to me.  You want a bigger printer,
without paying for an imbedded microvax and DECnet dependency,
get a Dataproducts or something.  Good bit less than $50,000.

>   "The best approach is to purchasing a laser printer is to examine
>your application first, the select the printer that provides the 
>throughput, functionality, connectivity and flexibility required to
>support the application.  If you know what application software you
>will be using with the printer, then you have a head start.  Find out
>what the software vendor recommend.  In the VAX environment, it
>probably wont be a PostScript."

Does the "VAX" environment (I assume they assume VAX==VMS), support
their printers any better?  My view of talaris printers is admittedly
limited to one x2700-based machine, that had a proclivity for charring
paper.  It understood QUIC codes.

(I'm not at all ragging on Dale; just making comments on comments)


-- 
@disclaimer(Any concepts or opinions above are entirely mine, not those of my
	    employer, my GIGI, or my 11/34)
beak is								  beak is not
Anthony A. Datri,SysAdmin,StepstoneCorporation,stpstn!aad