Re: Fwd: Interactive postscript from HP printer...

[email protected] (Perry Hutchison)
Newsgroups gmane.comp.printing.ghostscript.devel
Message-ID <558d0215.hsqG+T5eJvVSpjwb%[email protected]>
Ken Sharp <[email protected]> wrote:

> (bear in mind that early PostScript printers used
> a uni-directional parallel printer interface).

I'm sure _some_ early PostScript printers used the old-style
unidirectional parallel interface, but the earliest PostScript
printer I ever dealt with -- an Apple LaserWriter -- had serial
and Appletalk interfaces (and no parallel interface).

The serial interface was definitely bidirectional; I never used
the Appletalk capability but it was reputed to also support
bidirectional communication.

> While it is possible with some printers I can attest from painful
> personal experience that in general you get nothing back from a
> printer.

I would claim that a printer which lacks bidirectional communication
capability cannot fully implement the PostScript language, since
several PostScript operators -- such as print and pstack -- cannot
perform their defined functions without a bidirectional interface.
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