Rich Corn writes:
> In article <v0311071baffed53d9b10@[199.245.241.61]>,
> [log in to unmask] says...
> >Mike Gabriel <[log in to unmask]> wrote some interesting
> >comments about spooling that brought to mind an ancient topic that
> >comes up every now and then (and that perhaps has been solved).
> >
> >Is there any way (via a spooler utility, hardware, or whatever) to
> >"motivate" a LINE printer to always begin a listing on an even (or,
> >for that matter, on an odd) page?  The idea is that EVERY listing
> >would then have its first page "on top".

> I am not aware of this capability in any HP printer or software. It
> would require the printer to understand where the "fold" is in the
> paper and then support control sequences to cause the printer to
> perform operations relative to the fold. Don't think that has been
> done on any HP printer or any other that I have seen...

It was done at least 24 years ago on an IBM 1401 line printer, among
others, at the University of Tennessee.  If you remember carriage tapes
and "skip to channel n" directives, this should make sense.  Their
output spooler (OS/360 HASP in those days, later JES2) was "modified"
to do a "skip to channel 9" before printing a banner page.  The actual
carriage tape consisted of two pages of duplicate punches *except*
there was only one channel 9 punch.  By labeling the carriage tape
appropriately and having the operator mount the paper on an "in fold"
you always had a face-up banner page.  Similarly, any programs that you
wanted to have output begin face-up could skip to channel 9 prior to
beginning the report.

Unfortunately, as "electronic" carriage tapes (a.k.a. "VFCs" in HP
printer terminology) arrived on the scene, there was the presumption
that a VFC specification began and ended on a channel-1 skip.  One of
the early HP line printers (a Dataproducts OEM, I think) still had to
have a carriage tape, but it read it once during power-up (or when the
operator changed it).  It would not accept the weird tape we used for
printing UT output.

Jeff Kell <[log in to unmask]>