NeWSPrint was Sun's attempt to sell low-cost PostScript printers. The idea
is pretty much the same as front-ending a dumb pixel-addressable printer
with Ghostscript; the PostScript interpretation would happen on the computer
system and only the rendered bitmaps would be downloaded to the printer.
In Sun's case, this was somewhat easy because they already had this NeWS
windowing system (Network extensible Windowing System) that was completely
based on Display PostScript.For a while they tried to get their customers to
convert completely to NeWS, but almost no one would do it. So then they
wrote a merged X11/NeWS display system, which generally sucked and the only
really good thing that could be said about it was that you could view a
PostScript document right in the windowing system. Eventually they had to
admit defeat and they started shipping OpenWindows as an X11 implementation
with the PostScript stuff reduced to just the PageView application. now
they're down to a CDE desktop, still with the PageView thing, and a good
share of their customers still just compile X11 from the X consortium
sources because Sun takes forever to update to the latest X release.
The worst thing about the SPARCprinter, to my memory, was that Sun used it
as an excuse for buggy PostScript support. Their online AnswerBook, for
example, was all written in FrameMaker and stored as PostScript documents.
However, the PostScript driver that they used was buggy -- it would keep
saving environment frames on the stack without ever popping them off. On any
normal PostScript printer (and by normal I include the Kodak Lionheart), a
largish AnswerBook document would blow out the stack and you could never
print it -- even though Sun claimed this should be possible. Whenever a
customer would complain about this though, Sun would simply say "well, it
works on a SPARCprinter...". Of course it would -- a SPARCprinter could
typically take advantage of hundreds of MB of virtual memory, something
unthinkable on the embedded controller in a PostScript printer.
Without that NeWSprint code (which was expensive and nearly impossible to
install correctly, as I recall), the SPARCprinter is a pretty crappy
printer. I'm not sure, there may be support for it in recent versions of
Ghostscript. If there isn't, there won't be much you can do with it AFAIK.
--Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew Haas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Greg Onufer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: "SPARClinux list" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, October 11, 1999 10:43 PM
Subject: Re: Status of bpp or other printing capabilities
> On Mon, 11 Oct 1999, Greg Onufer wrote:
> >
> > On Mon, 11 Oct 1999 22:11:01 -0400 (EDT) Matthew Haas wrote:
> > > I just got my hands on a Sun SPARCprinter, and I would be interested
in
> > > getting this piece of machinery to work with my LX. I recall that bpp
> > > (bidirectional printer p..?) was still 'experimental', etc.
> >
> > The SPARCprinter (at least the original one) doesn't use a parallel
> > interface, it uses a specialized video interface (lpvi- laser printer
> > video interface). You need the SBus card (which has an lpvi and a bpp
> > on it), the special cable, and the printer. You also need something
> > to create the rasters to send to the printer. GhostScript works great,
> > Sun originally sold NeWSPrint to do that job.
> >
>
> I have such a card (I believe)... but I definitely do not have any cables.
>
> However... the SPARCprinter has a female DB25 connector on it... here's
> some information I've gleaned:
>
> Sun SPARCprinter
> Model: QA-6
> Service Code: SP1
> Date of Manufacture: Nov 1991
>
> Either way I'm going to have to get a new cable for it... I have none in
> my collection. Any pointers to information on this printer?
>
> Also, what exactly is the NeWSPrint? (or SunPICS)...
>
> Thanks.
>
> > Cheers!greg
> >
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