DWB 2.0, HP Laser Jet II

[Rick Richardson]

(Cross posting because separate, but similar, inquiries have
appeared in all three groups the past several days.  Followups,
if any, have been directed to comp.text)

In article <198 at dcs.UUCP> wnp at dcs.UUCP (Wolf N. Paul) writes:
>In article <230 at ssbn.WLK.COM> bill at ssbn.WLK.COM (Bill Kennedy) writes:
> >Has anyone gotten Microport DWB 2.0 to work with an HP Laser Jet Series II
> >printer and font cartridges?  I know that they say there are optional
>
>We are using TPLUS, from  Textware in Cambridge, Mass. (textware!brent),
>Elan is a similar product. Both of them actually are POSTPROCESSORS for
>ditroff; as far as I know, both of them will support both cartridge and
>downloaded fonts. 
>
>If you need something non-commercial (i.e. inexpensive), Rick Richardson
>has sent his JetRoff to Brandon, and it should appear in comp.sources.misc
>starting around Sept. 6.

While we are waiting for the sources to appear from Brandon, let me
fill you in a little more about JetRoff.  I'd had some experience
with the TPLUS product (as implemented on a VAX 8700), and was
terribly disappointed with the amount of output, the font selection
that was provided, and its handling of pic and grap output (a lot
of my stuff wouldn't print).

Then, I got my hands on a 386, and called around to pick up the
ditroff postprocessor to drive the HP LJ II.  Neither Elan, nor
Textware would sell the postprocessor.  It was the whole package
or nothing at all.  Well, I already had paid for DWB (actually,
twice).  I sure wasn't about to pay for it a third time.  Even
worse, those packages cost more than the whole UNIX did, and
more than half of what the printer did!

At this point, about mid April, you have one very ticked off
experienced C programmer (me).  I did what comes naturally --
I started coding.  Then I needed fonts, because I wasn't
about to pay $200 to HP for a cartridge that doesn't even
properly support troff.  So I spent some time wandering
around in Metafont land (lots of fun!) making a set of troff
special characters.  I decided early on that I was never going
to support cartridges -- they are too expensive and don't have
the range of sizes that I'd like to see.  Downloading the
glyphs as needed works very well, and makes each printout
self contained.

I spent some time in bitmap land, because I needed to
integrate my logo and my signature into troff (Yep, my letters
and checks come out of the printer already signed).  Bitmaps
are tricky to do without direct support from troff.  But they
can be implemented, and the gory details are buried in a macro.

By now, JetRoff is a full fledged postprocessor for DWB.  I have
a few more features on the TODO list, which I won't mention yet
because you never know who might be listening.  There are even
a few more bonus features I've added since I sent the copy
to Brandon to post to Usenet in comp.sources.misc.

Even at minimum wage, I've spent more money (in my time) on JetRoff
than I would if I'd just paid for a copy of Eroff or TPLUS.  But
now everybody can get a ditroff-->LJ II postprocessor for a fair
price, determined by their own needs, and with the source code
included.  That's all I ever wanted, and I hope that's what a lot
of netters want to.

There are quite a few reams of paper left in troff, and JetRoff
will make sure that all those reams get used.
-- 
		Rick Richardson, PC Research, Inc.
		rick%pcrat.uucp at uunet.uu.net (INTERNET)
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