Sun to Laser Printer

[Andrew Kostiuk]

The following is my response to eric at yamada-sun who was having a problem
sending files from a Sun to a Laser Writer.  We had the same problem and
came up with the following program which seems to work well.  It may be
worth posting for others who are having the same problem.

>Here's a  problem  I  keep  having: Sending   PostScript  output to  a
>LaserWriter IINT.
>The problem  is that   _some_   files  get ignored   completely.   For
>instance, I'll have a dozen PostScript files in the current directory, and
>I'll type
>	lpr *

[ Various text deleted ]

We had the same problem.  It seems that although the LaserWriter does use
XON/XOFF flow control, it can still be overflowed by incoming serial data!
The solution we came up with (although not elegant but it works) is a
special program called "lpz" (z for laZer (I know, not spelled right) ).

What "lpz" does is send a <Control-T> to the LaserWriter every few (10)
lines of PostScript and wait for a response from the LaserWriter before
sending the next batch of lines.  The <Control-T> code requests the
LaserWriter to display a current status string.  It can be sent (I
believe) at any time, even in the middle of a bit image to the
LaserWriter.

The "lpz" program follows.  It was not written with distribution in mind
but feel free to modify and use it.  If you have problems, you can send me
mail.

Ed's Note:

FTP	HostName : titan.rice.edu (128.42.1.30)
	Directory: sun-source
	FileName : lpz.c

Archive Server Address: archive-server at rice.edu
Archive Server Command: get sun-source lpz.c