Responses to: Printing to Suns from MAC II ...

[Kerry Gough]

First, thanks to all who responded to my message. I received several
responses, both to me personally and in sun-spots, and many were quite
helpful. However, at least one response in sun-spots was incorrect. In
case someone else may be interested in doing the same thing, I would like
to correct that response, as well as giving everyone my findings. 

In a nutshell, I wanted to print documents directly from my Mac II to the
printers on my Sun, going through a Kinetics ethernet board (no FastPath
box). In v7i304, Steve Rumsby says:

> I was told a couple of days ago by a TOPS person that the latest verion of
> TOPS, available NOW, will allow printing from Mac to Sun. Of course the
> glossy he gave me didn't mention this feature, but he assured me it was
> true...

Steve, call your TOPS person back and chew his butt out. I spoke to one of
the technical folks at TOPS (Marcie Cohen, I believe) who said that that
feature will not be available until the software release scheduled for
first quarter 1990. (Aside: I spoke to these folks two months ago, and
they said it would be ready "in about six months". Two months later, they
are still quoting dates that are six months away. Grumble, grumble...) 

However, there is an answer to this problem, for any who are interested.
Kinetics, Inc. has a software package on the market called Kspool which
allows one to use the printers on the Suns through either ethernet or
appletalk. It apparently works alongside TOPS with no problems. It does,
however, require OS 3.x, although 4.x support is on the way. Also, it is
NOT available through Falcon Microsystems. Apparently, the only way to get
it is to order it directly from Kinetics. Approximate price is $495 per
copy. I have not purchased it yet, so I can't yet report on how well it
works, but it sounds as though Kspool is currently the only game in town
if you want to do this sort of thing. (Thanks to Steve Smith at University
of Illinois for recommending it to me.)

Excelsior!!!

Kerry M. Gough
NASA-Langley Research Center
M.S. 157B
Hampton VA 23665
(804)864-2496
kerry at teb.larc.nasa.gov