From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Date: Sat,  4 May 2013 09:43:16 +0200
From: tlaronde@polynum.com
To: Fans of the OS Plan 9 from Bell Labs <9fans@9fans.net>
Message-ID: <20130504074316.GA570@polynum.com>
References: <CANUoZoFAP0DAEc2nSed1GKoMfxHp57PKYsGGyaRNw+u_PpbRLw@mail.gmail.com>
	<cd82e4c43219b1383bc7353ae4a869eb@quintile.net>
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Subject: Re: [9fans] anyone attempted to build ghostscript recently?
Topicbox-Message-UUID: 57191b0c-ead8-11e9-9d60-3106f5b1d025

On Fri, May 03, 2013 at 09:08:26PM +0100, Steve Simon wrote:
>=20
> My need is for postscript to pcl6 for the printer we have, currently I
> run ghostscript under linuxemu which works but I I would prefer to have
> a working native port.
>=20

Since I had to try to print to an HP with PCL (in fact, with HPGL
embedded in PCL, with job dispatched by PJL...) I looked for a direct
whatever to HPGL (there was a now nuked program in cups in the
early days) or for whatever to PCL. I have not managed to get a
working ghostscript combination that can be swallowed by the HP
big designjet, so I have read the ghostscript sources and the
cups sources.

Problem: there is a mixing of PJL directly in the drivers (while PJL
should be left outside for what it is: embedding printer jobs---lp
level); cups uses ghostscript mainly to rasterize a PS document and then
to produce PJL and PCL commands to embed this image in a job the PCL
printer can eat.

For the task at end, you might have more success by using the
Ghostscript shipped by Plan9 to create a raw image (=E0 la cups)
and to write the filter to embed this image in PCL commands, and
these in PJL (PCL and PJL are now finally documented by HP).

If you have a network connected printer (or a printer connected to a
bi-directional parallel port) to discover what is supported by the
printer, use PJL (sh(1) example used from an Unix):

------------
#!/bin/sh
#

# lpd status.
#
LPD_OK=3D0
LPD_ERROR=3D1
LPD_FATAL=3D2

PJL_UEL=3D'=1B%-12345X' # Universal Exist Language : sentry

PJL_LANGUAGE_SWITCH=3D'=1BE' # for printers supporting several languages

# If used as a filter for lpd, it has to have "something".
#
cat >/dev/null

# Opening the job.
#
printf '%s' $PJL_UEL

# Ensure we send us something.
#
printf '@PJL USTATUS DEVICE=3DVERBOSE\n'

# A custom string is echoed because there can be informations sent to
# someone else for something else. This is to now this is linked to our
# request.
#
printf '@PJL ECHO KerGIS requesting config %s\n' "$(date -u '+%F %T')"

# If the printer does not support the category, the answer is:
#
# "?" <CR><LF>
# <FF>
#
# Hence, we ask for everything hoping to have something...

# INFO
#
printf '@PJL INFO ID\n'
printf '@PJL INFO CONFIG\n'
printf '@PJL INFO FILESYS\n'
printf '@PJL INFO MEMORY\n'
printf '@PJL INFO PAGECOUNT\n'
printf '@PJL INFO STATUS\n'
printf '@PJL INFO VARIABLES\n'
printf '@PJL INFO USTATUS\n'

# INQUIRE et DINQUIRE.
#
printf '@PJL INQUIRE PERSONALITY\n'
printf '@PJL INQUIRE RESOLUTION\n'
printf '@PJL INQUIRE RESOURCESAVE\n'

# End of job
#
printf '%s' $PJL_UEL

exit $LPD_OK
--=20
        Thierry Laronde <tlaronde +AT+ polynum +dot+ com>
                      http://www.kergis.com/
Key fingerprint =3D 0FF7 E906 FBAF FE95 FD89  250D 52B1 AE95 6006 F40C