From: johnn@eskimo.celestial.com (John Navitsky)
Subject: Re: How bad is WordPerfect 5.1
Organization: =>ESKIMO NORTH (206) 367-3837 SEATTLE, WA.<=
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 17:19:42 GMT

In article <t=n1H9tag9@atlantis.psu.edu> barr@pop.psu.edu (David Barr) writes:
>In article <0105002B.clqngw@digtype.airage.com> jeff@digtype.airage.com writes:

[...]

>
>Well, it certainly has fixed a _LOT_ of problems.  I've gotten it to
>work cleanly with my PostScript lasers, but none of my line printers
>yet.  I still can't understand why in the hell WordPerfect needs
>to know the serial line parameters when using an _lpr_ spooler.

Sorry I can't remember exactly how we set up some of these things since I don't
work with it any more but I'll try..

We specified our printers as "other"  In that case you can specify the standard
lpr line like...  lpr -Pmyprinter  WP will append the <<filename>> on the end
and everything is cool.  It uses your printcap without problems.

>Oh, IMHO WP's printer drivers are still braindead.  We run transcript
>here, and as such I can't use the HPIIIsi print driver for our
>HPIIIsi.  The problem is that the output of the driver is not PostScript.
>It has some bizarre one-line header which makes sure the postscript
>"card" is turned on, and something else.  Transcript then rejects it
>because there's no "%!" at the beginning, and thinks it is binary.
>The same thing goes for our other PostScript printers.  I just use the 
>Apple LaserWriter driver, and all is fine.

We had the same experiance with our HP JL III.  Originally we had a postscript
cartridge in it and it worked fine (probably Apple LW but I don't remember).
Then, we set it up with newsprint and it was much nicer (very fast) but WP
broke.  newsprint had the same "%!" problem and would print out an ascii 
version of the postscript.  This one was a bit trickier but I used the utility
to edit print drivers included with WP and edited the bugger and hard coded 
the "%!" in the proper place.  Worked fine then.

>
>Has anyone gotten a trick to setting up dot matrix line printers with
>an lpr spooler?  I keep getting "Spool Command held" or some such
>"error".

Not sure here but hardcoding the "lpr -P" stuff worked fine for us.  I don't 
think we ever had problems getting a printer to talk.  (we did have some 
problems we belive were inaccurate emulations though)

>
>But anyway, yes, I would recommend considering WP now, especially if
>you have PC weenies who you want to "convert" to your network.
>
>--Dave
>-- 
>System Administrator, Population Research Institute    barr@pop.psu.edu
>Emacs is a fine operating system, but I still prefer UNIX. - Tom Christiansen

I've not used 5.1 but we used 4.2 then upgraded to 5.0 and while it wasn't 
quite "perfect" we were very happy.  We used WP 5.0 with both VT220 style
terminals and Sun SPARCstations.  In my oppinion it is a very good product.

  -john

-- 
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  John Navitsky                        e-mail   johnn@eskimo.celestial.com
                                               johnn@locke.hs.washington.ed
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