Re: Opinion Sought

[Michael Loßin <phallobst@xxxxxx>]

On 14-Jan-02 Russell L. Harris wrote:
>> >          My recommendation to you is that you switch to Debian and
>> > CUPS.  CUPS has its own, integral magic filer; thus, with CUPS you
>> > will
>> > have no need of apsfilter.

I'm no CUPS expert (what a surprise), but I think its
magic filter is much too inflexible, and (even worse)
it duplicates much of the funtionality that is already
present on most UNIX systems: ghostscript, a2ps, convert,
pdftops, pstops, ...

>          I didn't mean to disparage apsfilter, but was merely
> pointing out 
> a fact; I should have said "but with CUPS (regrettably) you can't use
> apsfilter."

Well, you can, but that means configuration of two systems
and their problems combined :^)

Imagine one printer queue (with apsfilter) for all the
pre-processing stuff -- fake duplex, "book" printing,
file type conversion with a2ps, convert etc.

With that queue you'd produce PostScript which apsfilter
would throw at the ordinary CUPS queue -- that will use its
printer driver.

This method is called a "bounce queue" in the apsfilter FAQ,
and it also works if you have other 3rd-party printing
systems like xwtools or turboprint instead of CUPS.

>          I've been at the point of desperation:  I need a printing
> system 
> to use with LaTeX, but I couldn't figure out how to use LPR or how to
> configure LPRng (which also has its own magic filter for HP
> LaserJets, 
> called ifhp).  CUPS happens to be the first printing system with
> which I 
> have had any degree of success.

Do you mean you want to print LaTeX files directly, like
"lpr -Pfoo -Z2pps bar.tex"? This is not (yet) possible
with apsfilter (mostly because (La)TeX files are not
suitable for automatic file recognition), but if you
produce the .dvi file manually, you can send it to your
printer without much hassle.

>          Based on the documentation I have read, I would LOVE to use
> LPRng 
> and apsfilter.  If you or someone else will help me get this
> combination 
> running under Debian, I will forget about CUPS -- simply because I
> know 
> that LPRng and apsfilter are proven and versatile.  The only trouble
> is 
> getting past the complexity of getting everything running together as
> a 
> system.

I don't know what causes you those problems... On my RedHat
derived system I have compiled many necessary programs by
myself (LPRng, ImageMagick, ghostscript, gimp-print), installed
some binary packages, grabbed the apsfilter tarball -- nice
little package, by the way :) -- and I've *read*the*docs*.

I didn't even need to do much configuration (I guess I'd
even get good results with none at all), but maybe I'm far
too much "into it"...

>          Now, what specific course should I follow after uninstalling
> CUPS 
> and installing LPRng and apsfilter?

Do it step by step, and get one part working before you
proceed to the next.

1) ghostscript (plus any driver package you need for your
   printer): The single most important program. This must
   be ready to run, no excuses :)
   Make sure you can convert some PostScript file to the
   printer language you need.

2) LPRng: Set up a basic queue (with no filter) first, then
   try to print the printer language file from 1). If that
   doesn't work, apsfilter won't work, either.

3) apsfilter: Pretty much straight-forward setup, your
   printer driver (most likely) is supported.
   The test page should print okay.

4) converters (optional): Although PostScript is what you
   get (from the applications) most of the time, maybe
   you want to print images, dvi files etc.
   Read the apsfilter doc to see which packages you need
   and install those.


And most importantly: don't despair ;^)  Once you've set up
your printing system, you'll know a lot more about your
Debian Linux system than by just clicking some icons in
your CUPS browser dialog.


HTH
Michael