Re: [Gimp-print-devel] HP replies!

[Robert L K. <rl...@al...>]

   Date: Wed, 10 May 2000 10:07:56 +0100
   From: Dave Hill <da...@mi...>

   I aksed HP the big question about releasing specs for their
   printers and this was the answer:-

	Thank you for your inquiry.  Regarding the PhotoRet technology
	it is only currently accessible from the Windows Driver.  If
	you are operating outside the Windows environment and can't
	take advantage of the driver, the only commands available are
	in the PCl Developer Guide.

   This, of course is exactly the answer I expected.

   Anyone got any suitable ammunition to fire back at them?

Other than the fact that Epson (as an example of a company taking a
more enlightened approach) will have a much easier time selling
printers into the UNIX community?  I would think that they'd care
about that, but maybe not...

   I notice they use the words "only currently accessible".

Is it unidirectional (the driver generates commands and feeds them to
the printer) or bidirectional (the driver iteracts with the printer)?
If it's unidirectional, it shouldn't be all that hard to generate an
output file from Windows and parse it.  If it's bidirectional, it's a
bit harder; it would need something like a parallel port with a tap
that allows you to record what's sent both ways.

-- 
Robert Krawitz <rl...@al...>      http://www.tiac.net/users/rlk/

Tall Clubs International  --  http://www.tall.org/ or 1-888-IM-TALL-2
Member of the League for Programming Freedom -- mail lp...@uu...
Project lead for The Gimp Print --  http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net

"Linux doesn't dictate how I work, I dictate how Linux works."
--Eric Crampton