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

[Garry Garrett]

der Mouse wrote:
> 
> > 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.


One would think.  The print daemons on Solaris, however, do things
like decide wether or not to download fonts, and thus do examine
what is being printed.  Comments that start out %! and %% are
examined (unlike other comments).  Solaris will also do things
like reverse the order that the pages are printed in (for the
original SparcPrinters, who's pages came out face up and thus
if it printed it first page first, the stack of paper would be
backwards, etc.), if you tell it to do so.  Consequently, right
or wrong, Solaris does care very much about these "comments".

Solaris also will (and you can argue wether or not this is good
or bad practice) make a lame attempt to determine if what you are
sending to a PostScript printer really is PostScript or not.  If
your printout does not begin with %!, Solaris won't print it.


> I can't see how (1) could apply to either the printer or the driver
> software.  (2) *could* apply to the printer, though I'd argue it's
> broken to do so; it may well apply to the driver software.  In either
> case, if there's no option to manually provide the information the
> guess is attempting to deduce, I'd definitely say it's broken.
> Unfortunately, in my experience, host software is frequently broken in
> this way. :-(
> 
> </RANT>
> 
> Sigh.  Sorry about that.  You happened to trip over one of my perennial
> annoyances, people and software that seem to think the Adobe file
> structuring conventions are in some way more than just conventional
> comments.

Right or wrong, the world has pretty much taken Adobe's file
structuring "conventions" as the Gospel according to Adobe,
and if you don't follow them, your print job may not print.

-- 
Garry Garrett
http://garrett.no-ip.com/ 

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