Re: Opinion Sought

["Russell L. Harris" <rlharris@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 11:07 PM 1/14/02 +0100, you wrote:
>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.

         Interesting, if a bit complicated.  I'll make this approach plan 
"B", in case plan "A" doesn't work for me.

>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.

         No.  I expect to use dvips filename.dvi and then lp 
filename.ps.  If I recall correctly, the last time I tried this with LPRng, 
however, I got a third of a page of good output, followed by twenty pages 
of garbage.

>and I've *read*the*docs*.

         I'll read the apsfilter documentation again tonight.

>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"...

         I read the LPRng documentation (which covers installation) and 
became lost in the detail.  I'm not sure what Debian already does by way of 
default configuration and what I still need to do.  I'll try tonight or in 
the morning to install LPRng, apsfilter, ghostscript, etc., and see what 
happens.

>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.

         No one told me this before.  Is ghostscript needed, even with a 
Postscript printer?

>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.

         And I shouldn't install ifhp, right?

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

         On a previous attempt, I did get a good printout of the apsfilter 
test page, but I couldn't get anything else to print.  I'll report my 
progress.  I'm feeling much better now about the prospect of success.

RLH