Subject: papd wish list

From: anthony <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 17:03:55 -0500

Maybe someone knows a simple way to do this:

The Epson1520 we have here likes to talk back and forth with the Epson
Drivers, thus I cannot use the Epson drivers and have the printer
attached to a linux print server. It seems, however, to be able to speak
to a NetWare print server. So

A. Have the linux box intercept the driver queries to the printer,
forward them to the printer, then forward the response from the printer
back to the mac. Since this communication is all appletalk, I don't see
this being terribly hard, just convoluted.

B. Have the linux box appear to the printer as a NetWare print server. I
see this as nigh impossible, as NetWare is a "closed" protocol.

So if anyone has tips on how to implement "A" I would be very
appreciative :)

PS. I'm trying to avoid using ghostscript here! I just want to pass raw
[non-postscript] data from the drivers to the printer.

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From: Patrik Schindler <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 23:27:54 +0100

>this being terribly hard, just convoluted.

But this hardly destroys the classical way of print spooling.

>see this as nigh impossible, as NetWare is a "closed" protocol.

Have a look at mars_nwe, perhaps this can help you.
But forwarding the backward replies from the printer to netatalk is nearly impossible.

>[non-postscript] data from the drivers to the printer.

My Opinion: Forget it. :-)
I thought about mis-using the PPD feature to get the driver some bytes he badly wants but I don't know what he wants. So I live with that.

:wq! PoC

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From: anthony <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 17:51:41 -0500

Patrik Schindler wrote:
> I thought about mis-using the PPD feature to get the driver 
> some bytes he badly wants but I don't know what he wants. 
> So I live with that.

I could probably just use a packet sniffer or something for AppleTalk
(surely one exists?!). I had THEM break down and buy the ethernet
adapter for the printer, which lets it be shared on the network, but
allows no spooling. They're talking about doing more fancy printing,
however, so I'll have them buy a nice big HP postscript printer - a
DesignJet CP3000 or somesuch :)

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From: andrew morgan <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 22 Mar 2000 16:01:08 -0800 (PST)

> this being terribly hard, just convoluted.

I have to agree with Patrick on this one.  Papd only spools print jobs.
It never actually talks to the printer itself, so it would be a major task
to add the functionality of A above.

I'd be surprised if Netware actually spoke to the printer either.  It
probably has a PPD file which it looks up the proper responses from.

	Andy