Pat Vaske ([log in to unmask]) wrote:
:  We have a 3 SI here that on a separate page prints "@PJL enter
: language=PCL" every time we issue a print command!!
 
: This is frustrating and obviously wastes a sheet of paper each time a print
: command is issued.
 
: We "think" we have followed all the configuration steps yet this continues
: to happen.
 
: Anyone out there who can tell us what we are doing wrong.
 
There's not enough information here to pinpoint the problem, but I *can*
make a couple of observations/WAGs:
 
Printer Job Language (PJL) is a print job management language supported
by many HP printers starting with the LJ IIISi.  The LJ IIISi version
only supports a small fraction of the language, but that fraction includes
the @PJL ENTER command.
 
The printer does not print "@PJL enter language=PCL" on its own.  That
is part of the data stream sent to it.  You don't indicate what platform
you are using (MPE, HP-UX, other), the nature of your "print command"
(:PRINT, :FCOPY, lp(1), other), nor the type of connection (serial,
network...) to your printer, so I can only speculate.
 
Your data file may contain the @PJL string.  If it was generated by a
PC application such as Word for Windows 6.0 or later, it most certainly
has this string at the beginning of the data.
 
If you are using lp(1) on an HP-UX system, it may access a printer model
file.  Such files are actually shell scripts which process the lp(1)
command line options and send appropriate control sequences to the
printer.  Many model files send the above string.
 
I don't know how lp(1) works on the MPE Posix shell, so I can't say if
the same holds true for Posix.
 
Anyway, when a printer that supports PJL receives a syntactically
correct PJL command, it should act on it and not display it.  This suggests
that the command is either not syntactically correct, or that it is being
sent at the "wrong time".  The correct syntax is:
 
   @PJL ENTER LANGUAGE=PCL <LF>   <--- <LF> is the linefeed character, ^J.
 
I believe, but can't confirm easily, that @PJL must be upper case, but
everything following that is case-insensitive.  Furthermore, the printer
must be in its PJL mode (this is what I meant by "wrong time").  The
LJ IIISi supports both a PCL "personality" and (if the option has been
purchased) a PostScript personality.  You switch into one of these using
the above command (or ...LANGUAGE=POSTSCRIPT).  While in either of those
personalities, PJL syntax is interpreted as data according to the rules
of those personalities, and not as PJL.  To put the printer back into PJL
mode, all personalities recognize the Universal Escape Language, or UEL,
command, namely
 
   <Esc>%-12345X     <Esc> is ^[, or chr(27), the Escape character.
 
So if your script/application/whatever does not include the UEL command,
the printer may be displaying the @PJL command in whatever personality it
happens to be in.  I speculate that it is PCL, since such a string in
PostScript personality would probably generate a PostScript error.
 
I hope this is useful in isolating your problem.
 
-Larry "MPE/iX Spoolers 'R' Us" Byler-