On Thu, 20 Jun 1996 16:02:30 -0800 Gary Dietz said:
>Yes, there are several good packages.  We use a package called ESPUL, from
>RAC Consulting. It's a great product with great support and the price is
>reasonable.  Give them a call at 360-357-9572.
>
>Also, HP will be providing this capability in the next release of MPE/iX,
>but it will not be as feature rich as the 3rd party offerings.
 
A few considerations here, particularly for 2680-experienced users:
 
* Any laserjet-like printer needs some setup unless you want to print in
  portrait mode in the default font.  This holds true of serial printers as
  well as network printers.  Using TTYPE files as ENV files will work if you
  are adept at PCL escape sequences, or your program can generate escape
  sequences, but it is worth considering if you expect a laserjet to replace
  a 132-column lineprinter.
 
* Network printing solutions include varying degrees of formatting control
  from none to active formatting.  Most notably, reduction printing (2-up
  or 4-up formats) which is trivial on a 2680 will not work on laserjets
  without assistance (or generating the PCL sequences yourself, which is
  often not an option) as the 2680-type "form feeds" between logical pages
  will do a physical page eject on laserjets.
 
* At present, there are 3rd party "formatting" (Formation, Fantasia, etc)
  solutions and 3rd party "network printing" (ESPUL, NBSpool, etc) products.
  Most "formatting" packages won't do network printing, and most "network
  printing" packages won't do formatting (some basic things excluded, for
  example, ESPUL can do 2-ups and 4-ups on network printers, but doesn't work
  for serial printers).
 
HP's network printing won't do reduction either; they just transfer the raw
data (so it appears).  They also probably won't provide 2680-level of support
for various formatting options like the 2680 environment files (varying
orientations, reduction, fonts, etc).
 
I suppose nobody will know until the 5.5 release just how robust the MPE
offering will be regarding formatting, but the crux of my point is that there
are really two problems to be addressed - network printing, and laserjet
print formatting.  I could very well be wrong, but I don't know of any single
package that addresses both issues equally.  We use both Formation and ESPUL
and I don't foresee HP's network printing replacing the function of either
one in it's proposed incarnation.
 
If on the other hand you just want to dump data out to a jetdirect box, then
you can probably live with the HP solution (and perhaps your programs are
already PCL-aware).  But coming from a 2680 environment, we grew to expect
to control formatting at the :file...;env= level and be done with it.  This
is not the case with laserjets, the C30 or C40 printers (though supposedly it
works for the 5000/Fxxx printers; I can't verify yes or no).
 
This wasn't intended as a specific <plug> for anybody mentioned, just trying
to bring some of the complexities of the "overall picture" into play for any
others in a similar situation (we're ditching a 2680 for a C40D so I'm
speaking from personal experience).
 
Jeff Kell <[log in to unmask]>