Mike,

HP in their infinite wisdom coded OUTSPTJ such that it
always generates some pcl even when there is no setup
file. This makes it very difficult to use networking
printing with non-hp/non-pcl printers.

However, if you check the code you will discover the
base pcl commands which get generated are stored as
literals so that you can patch them out (turn into
nulls) and still have an operating program.

I did this and had the spooler work without crashing
the system. I didn't have a non-pcl printer to test, but
my limited testing indicated it should have worked.
But, you need to have 2 versions of OUTSPTJ, one for
pcl and one for non-pcl.

You should keep the following in mind if trying this:

a. the code is intimately tied to the OS version so you
   should always re-patch the version that comes with
   your OS updates. Also, don't share a patched program
   with other systems since you might crash it when run.

b. the program is loaded  when the first networked
   device spooler is started. I was going to do the
   following:
   * have 2 versions of outsptj saved in pub.sys, one
     for pcl and one for non-pcl
   * before starting spooling on networked printers copy
     the non-pcl code into outsptj
   * start spooling on non-pcl printers
   * purgelink outsptj
   * copy pcl code into outsptj
   * start pcl networked printers

c. based on 'b' you might have problems with an active
   production system where you need to start/stop printer
   spoolers. however, you could work out a plan to
   encapsulate all this in cmd files.

BTW, if interested I could share the code I used to find and
patch the pcl. But don't call if you crash your system!

Duane Percox
[log in to unmask]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Berkowitz [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2001 2:51 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [HP3000-L] Npconfig file
>
>
> Is there a way to not use any setup file in the NPCONFIG file
> if you are
> using the global setup file parameter?  In other words I want on an
> individual device to say setup_file=NONE, NADA, ZIP, ZILCH,
> NULL, etc. and
> not use any setup file, just the built in parameters setup on
> our Linejet
> 1500.
>
> Mike Berkowitz
> Guess? Inc.
>
> * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
> * etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *
>

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