Hi Blaz.
>>> Now that i've finally got that lp driver to print on my
>>> inkspitter (= it should work 100% on other parallel printers
>>> too) it's time to write some userland tools.
>> Does this mean that, other than the actual networking code,
>> ELKS is ready to act as a transparent print spooler? If so,
>> that's great news...
> Yes. Although it shouldn't be too hard to put together simple
> filter, at least something that converts plain ascii to PCL
> printable file. What i fed my printer was document spitted out
> of magicfilter for Linux.
What I was looking at initially was the following setup:
1. Network of assorted ELKS, Linux and WinXX systems.
2. One of the Linux systems acts as a master print filter,
and performs the necessary translations for the printer
in question, then sends the translated document to...
3. One or more ELKS systems, each with a printer attached,
which receive documents from (2) and spool them to the
local hard drive, feeding them on to the printer as
required.
That uses (3) as a "transparent print spooler", as per my quoted
comment, and the development of a "translating print spooler" using
utilities such as ghostscript (can that be easily ported to ELKS)
would follow from there.
> BTW, this doesn't really explain why i didn't get staircase
> effect - my document surely didn't have ^M (it's missing from
> full LF/CR sequence on Unix) and the document printed nice
> anyway. I'll have to investigate this a bit more. And yes, lp.c
> needs error handling so it will become larger eventually.
The presence or absence of the staircase effect is a 'feature' of the
printer itself - some printers can be set to treat LF as CR/LF, so
only need to see the LF character to do both, others need to see the
CR as well. Your comments indicate that your printer treats LF as
CR/LF.
>> I'd certainly be interested in having a go at lpd if it's not
>> yet ready, and I can probably also put together a basic terminal
>> emulator, although I can't guarantee anything soon...
> In that case it'd be better if you go for lpd or relevant
> printer tools. Jacek Lipowski claims claims that he has terminal
> program improved and i guess it's just up to him to reveal the
> URL where it is located :-)))))
OK. I have exams this coming week though, so don't expect much work
until after then...
Best wishes from Riley.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| There is something frustrating about the quality and speed of Linux |
| development, ie., the quality is too high and the speed is too high, |
| in other words, I can implement this XXXX feature, but I bet someone |
| else has already done so and is just about to release their patch. |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
* ftp://ftp.MemAlpha.cx/pub/rhw/Linux
* http://www.MemAlpha.cx/kernel.versions.html
