Re: Need advice re a new laser printer

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from "Fredric Gross"  on Tue, 13
Apr 2004 14:55:46 -0400


> It may well be that the printer manufacturers are
> modifying the H-P version, or that H-P is tweeking the version given to
> other manufacturers.

That doesn't make complete sense. The language itself is published, open. All
the commands are known (if they weren't, nobody could write a printer driver
for them). HP didn't write the XyWrite PRNs -- XyQuest wrote them. So the
problem, if there is one, must lie with the PagePro's implementation
(translation from code to paper) of the language's commands -- they can't just
go steal HP's firmware (although maybe they license it). Unless, of course,
you are right that recent PCL versions are not downwardly compatible... But
Paul Breeze bought a new HP 1000W last fall, and it worked fine, using a
software emulation of PCL 5; Paul said that the HP 1005, 1150 and 1300 printers
also use that software.

I'm just surprised that I never heard of this before. How did you learn that
"PCL emulation was too high"? The uneasy thing is, that there are so many
reasons why printers "don't work", e.g. bottlenecks in the spooler, that aren't
related to PCL but are difficult to diagnose.

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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