Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (1919 mails)

[cjtan@xxxxxxx (C. J. Kenneth Tan)]

I don't think Fred has any point here comparing AIX and RS/6000 to Linux
and x86 based on printing.  Like what Donnie said, it's an application
issue.  Aside from that, I am also questioning as to whether the two
machines are connected to identical printers.  If they are not, then that
is not a very fair comparison.  The next thing is that over the years with
UNIX and really big machines, I have never ever seen them connected to any
non-PostScript printer.  If you want printing to be fast and the printing
volume is fast, I don't see any reason why not going to a PostScript
printer.  However, if it's just a small place, low amount of printing,
printing speed doesn't really matter, then I can see why printing using a
PCL LaserJet or something similar which prints 4 ppm is acceptable.  

Personally, I think anyone who uses an RS/6000 as a print server, printing
to a printer that still needs to run Ghostscript to handle PostScript
printing, is either out of their minds or doesn't know what s/he is
supposed to know.  

I want to rename this thread because I don't think it really reflect its
contents anymore.  But I don't know what to rename it to.  Someone help me
here, please.  

Regards,
Kenneth Tan
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
C. J. Kenneth Tan
E-mail: cjtan@xxxxxxx                   Telephone: 1-403-220-8038 
        cjtan@xxxxxxxx                             1-403-606-4257 
URL: <A HREF="http://www.cuug.ab.ca/~tanc";><A HREF="http://www.cuug.ab.ca/~tanc</A">http://www.cuug.ab.ca/~tanc</A</A>>        Facsimile: 1-403-284-1980

            "An engineer made programmer is one 
                who attempts to solve a problem,
              A programmer made engineer is one 
                who knows how to solve a problem."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Mon, 27 Jul 1998 Ted.Harding@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> 
> On 26-Jul-98 djb@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:
> >> This is largely because of Ghostscript...then
> >> necessity for it!  This is one area where Linux MUST get a MAJOR
> >> change.  If you don't have a postscript printer, and most of us don't
> >> and WON'T, you're in trouble.
> > 
> > Can you elaborate on this?  I don't see how this is an advantage for
> > an RS/6000 box given that this is an *application* issue as near as
> > I can tell.
> > 
> > In the Windows world there is an API for printing and Windows uses
> > drivers for each printer to do the translations.  Application writers
> > just do their printing via that API and don't have to worry about
> > what printer is on the other side.  This is pretty much the case with
> > Linux, too, if you use PostScript.  The problem is that we don't
> > have printer manufacturers writing GhostScript plug ins for us to
> > just drop in.  If we did, you wouldn't care about the "need" for
> > GhostScript.
> 
> I think it's more fundamental than that. Since the mid-80s, when PostScript got
> well established, PostScript output has been pretty well a UNIX standard for
> just about ANY UNIX application where producing decent printed output was a
> primary function. I formed the view then, and still see little reason to change
> it, that if you're using UNIX (and, latterly, Linux of course) for serious
> printed work then you had better get a natively-PostScript-capable printer. The
> extra cost is well worth it in terms of speed, quality and capability. "WON'T"
> (see above) is not a fruitful attitude if you need to get work done nicely.
> 
> The main relatively recent (i.e. relative to mid-80s) exception to this is TeX
> with its .dvi output, which you can only print in PS after running dvips on it
> (but something like this would be essential anyway in view of TeX's unique
> fonts). In fact you can't print .dvi to ANYTHING without a converter.
> 
> There may be an argument for the UNIX (therefore Linux) world moving towards
> .dvi as a standard, though possibly there could be difficult problems there
> too. With that, all you need is a suite of 'dvi**' converters (like the dvips,
> dvilj*, etc) for whatever printers you've got. It has to be admitted that the
> freeware version of ghostscript does not always do a good job of rendering,
> as a result of the non-proprietary fonts it uses (better than they used to be,
> but still something of a job lot).
> 
> But you would then lose a lot of PostScript's capabilities (see [Note 1] below).
> 
> If you want a "common printing API" as in Donnie's remarks about Windows, you
> had better make pretty damn sure it carries all the capabilities anyone might
> need. This is not trivial, and I'm not at all sure that Windows has solved this
> satisfactorily for all applications. It's a very deep and hairy area, though,
> and meanwhile I reckon PostScript gives you a pretty smooth pathway through it
> with excellent quality in the results.
> 
> [Note 1].
> Don't forget, either, that PostScript has a LOT more power than most people who
> use it for plain printing realise. PS is in fact a fully-fledged FORTH-like
> programming language, and a PS printer is a computer on which this language is
> executed. Although PS's primary function of rendering a display is reflected in
> the large number of primitives it has for that purpose, you could even
> perfectly well for instance, if you connect to a PS printer via a serial link
> from a dumb terminal and start it up interactively with the "executive"
> command, do financial accounts using your printer as the computer.
> 
> Not that anyone would bother ... but if you want a simple and RELEVANT example
> of PostScript's computational capabilities, have a look at the "escher.ps" file
> in the ghostscript examples (on my S.u.S.E. system this is the file
> /usr/lib/ghostscript/examples/escher.ps). First, view it using gv (=ghostview).
> 
> Then edit the file and change the line (near the beginning)
> 
>   /nlayers 1 def
> 
> to, say,
> 
>   /nlayers 4 def
> 
> and view the result again. If you were to print this (as opposed to using gv
> to view it on screen) all the relevant work would be done inside the printer
> itself. All the PC has to do is feed the PostScript file to the printer as-is.
> 
> Now please comparatively comment on the Windows printing API.
> 
> 
> Best wishes to all,
> Ted.
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 27-Jul-98                                       Time: 12:10:42
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
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