Re: Brother's simulation

["Fredric Gross" fredric.gross@xxxxxxxx]

Hi --

I am using XY3+ in Dos 6.0. The Brother 5040's PCL 6 does some very strange
things, like changing the margins when you change the font. Although
Brother offers a modicum of tech support, I don't have time to learn how to
program in PCL 6. So I traded printers with my secretary, who had a Brother
HL-1440. A tad slower, especially on the first page, but the 1440's
emulation/simulation is PCL 4.5. Absolutely no problem with any of the XY3
LaserJet fonts. And since my sec'y doesn't do Xywrite, she gets along fine
with WP.

The Brother HL-1440 is out of production, but is still available from a few
remainder stores. Its big disadvantage is that it has a fairly small toner
cartridge, which frequently needs refilling or replacing. I previously had
NEC SilentWriters, which worked off the same XY3 LaserJet fonts, and had
relatively huge toner cartridges. The older models, such as 660, were
workhorses. Newer models, such as 860, had delicate paper feed systems.
That is why I switched to Brother.

Fred Gross



> Yeah, I _always_ check the OS/2 lists. A few printer manufacturers do
make a
> point of supporting Linux; nobody deliberately supports OS/2, except maybe
IBM.
> The most disconcerting thing about the Brother 5040 specs is that it says
it
> does "PCL6 simulation". Simulation? What the hell does that really mean?
But
> this printer can take a lot of memory, so it looks like it has a brain.
And
> the user said it worked for awhile...

>