Lane Rollins writes:
>
> > I was the site that discovered the network printer CCTL problem that resulted
> > in the new SERIAL_PRINTER_SIMULATION keyword.  This particular problem affects
> > *ALL* network printers, not just the LPQ series.  It cropped up here when we
> > started migrating DTC serial printers to JetDirectEX boxes and users started
> > complaining that their reports were printing funkily.
>
> Does the SERIAL_PRINTER_SIMULATION help the funky printing problem? Does it
> cause any other weird side effects?

Our reports that experienced the problem (COBOL) were creating their spoolfiles
with automatic page eject enabled (the default?).  They needed to print more
than 60 lines per page (the automatic page eject trigger), and so they were
using the %2nn CCTLs to force printing down to the very bottom of the page
without triggering the automatic page eject.

The problem is that the spooler would eject after 60 lines, then print the
last couple of lines at the top of the next page, then eject again to print
line 1 at the top of a new page.

SERIAL_PRINTER_SIMULATION=TRUE fixes this perfectly without introducing any
side effects.

There are still certain other reports that don't print the same on
HP network printing as they do on DTC serial printing, but due to lack of
time and the fact that not nearly as many users are affected, I haven't done
any analysis or opened any HPRC calls.  :-(

So my standard method for migrating a DTC serial printer to a network printer
is:

1) Configure the printer using MPE FOS network printing.

2) Wait for any user complaints.

3) If there are complaints, switch the printer to Minisoft's NetPrint92.  So
far NetPrint92 solves all complaints.  (We acquired NetPrint92 when we were
still on MPE/iX 5.0 and HAD to start doing network printing before we were
ready update to 5.5)
--
Mark Bixby                      E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Coast Community College Dist.   Web: http://www.cccd.edu/~markb/
District Information Services   1370 Adams Ave, Costa Mesa, CA, USA 92626-5429
Technical Support               Voice: +1 714 438-4647
"You can tune a file system, but you can't tune a fish." - tunefs(1M)