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Q: The network printing support that
arrives with MPE 5.5 has
numerous flaws and functionality
differences compared to serial
printing.What is the likelihood that these
issues will ever be
fixed, so that network printing will be as
smooth and reliable
as serial printing?
Jim Sartain: How many people are
actually using MPE 5.5? Looks
like a good majority of the
audience. That’s great, because we
know this was one of the most
highly requested features. How many
are using 5.5 and network printing?
It looks like maybe half of
the people on 5.5.
We saw this was a very
popular feature. We tried to come out
with the basic functionality to
support LaserJet printers using
a JetDirect card, and we knew
we’d have some problems. We have
been addressing some issues. There
have been some bug fixes. Some
have been released. Some are in the
works, and we continue to
work out some of these issues.
But I think what I’d
like to do is work directly with Mark [Bixby,
who posed the question] on these
specific issues and be clear
about the status. Maybe I can post
something on HP3000-L that
says what we’ve seen, what
we’ve addressed, and what we plan to
address.
Rick Gilligan: Could I modify
your question to be that “if it
worked as we kind of think it
should.” I’m not talking about adding
major functionality, just the
defect fixes. I’d raise my hand,
but if you’re not really going
to fix the defects I go, well,
I’m not raising it.
Jim Sartain: So you’re saying
you think it’s a reliability issue,
not a functionality issue?
Rick Gilligan: For me and for
the clients that I have, they’re
all willing to live with either the
functionality as pretty much
intended to be, once the defects
are gone, or they will upgrade,
or some of them already have
NBSPOOL, or they discontinued that
particular product, because they
had very basic printing needs.
It works for them and they see that
it is much simpler in their
environment than it is to do the
equivalent functionality of some
of the third party products. But if
they have more diverse needs
they certainly willing and always
were willing to use third party
products.
Jim Sartain: But that kind of
underscores our original intent
– to provide basic
functionality . I’m glad to hear that the issue
isn’t that you think we need
to expand the functionality we provide,
because we have no intent of trying
to replicate the fine functionality
that’s available from people
like Minisoft. We’ll try to work
out the kinks.
Q. I’ve been waiting since the
first release of the JetDirect
cards which were supposed to allow the use
of various paper trays
on the printer, and it doesn’t work
either.
Jim Sartain: Does someone know,
is that PCL capability? Because
the intent was to support printers
that are PCL level 5 compliant
or later.
Jeff Kell from UTC: I think one of
the issues there was with the
paper tray. If you use any
environment files, or any other setup
information, it always uses the
default parameters of the printer.
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