Peter writes in response to Ron's question:

> Does anyone know if a 3000 can spool a PostScript file
> to an HP Printer that supports PostScript? If so, the Linux/Unix program
> "pdf2ps" could probably be ported giving this functionality.

The answer is "yes." But then I tell all of our customers that the answer is
always yes :-). (There's nothing about computers that ever requires the
answer to be no.)

In this case, however, it's not only yes but easy to print PostScript from
the HP3000 and we've been doing it for 10 years.

There is a difference between PostScript and PDF files however. PostScript
files are plain vanilla ASCII files. Indeed, it's part of the philosophy of
PostScript that all text within the .ps files should remain within the
printable character set, decimal 32 to 126. PDF, in contrast, is a binary
file structure and can contain any 8-byte character.

There is a compiled BASIC program on our HP3000 that I've exposed to the
called SENDPS. You only need to answer two questions to use it: the name of
the file you wish to print and the LDEV number of the printer you're aiming
at.

I just tried it with a PDF file that's on our HP3000. SENDPS failed, which
wasn't unexpected, but it wouldn't take very much for me to rewrite it so
that it would be compatible with both PS and PDF formatted files.

Wirt Atmar

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