[Suns-at-Home] PPD file for HP-4050N printer needed for StarOffice 5.2 on Sparcbox

[Alistair MacDonald]

=== der Mouse  <mouse@Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA> 12/06/00 04:45PM >>>
>>> I have even tried printing to a file and manually printing using 'lp
>>> -d hplaser testfile.ps' and the result is the same, so something
>>> must be wrong with the postscript code that StarOffice is generating.
>
>> The files *are* postscript, aren't they?  Check that they really do
>> begin;
>
>> %!PS-Adobe-3.0
>
>> If not, the printer may throw them away....
>
><RANT>
>If a supposedly-PostScript printer pays any attention to comments, it
>is broken.  The only places for paying any attention to such comments
>are (1) programs that must manipulate the file in more complex ways
>than simply rendering the PostScript (such as selecting pages) and (2)
>attempts to guess what sort of content an unknown file has.
>[...]
></RANT>

Since you are ranting, I'll comment. This is a hypocritical comment coming from a unix user. Most unix systems use this mechanism to determine how to interpret a file. Look at the start of shell scripts -- they are supposed to start with: 

#!/path/to/shell

Strangely, this looks like a comment to me .... Even odder it looks like PostScript comment above.

If the printer had only one personality, or was locked to only one personality, then all the files would be treated as if they were. Thankfully most HPs are built with multiple personalities, and they are normally configured to auto-detect the content. These are: 

HP-PCL - easy to detect: Its binary and there is a signature at the start
PS - text
Text - text

How do you tell these last two apart ? The printer does its best by looking at the incoming text. 

So, this is reasonable behaviour. 

If you don't agree with this kind of behaviour then you would be better using an OS which doesn't do this. (However, even PC's DOS does to an extent ....) And if you don't like your printer's decision, just tell it what you want to do. You can always lock the printer to a specific personality (If you completely control the environment) or attach the appropriate command sequence to the start to force a particular mode. (Of course, how do most systems achieve this?  They use this "magic" detection ......)

Alistair