[vox-tech] computer pretending to be a printer

[Dylan Beaudette]

On Tuesday 30 November 2004 01:17 pm, Ken Bloom wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 30, 2004 at 10:38:58AM -0800, Rick Moen wrote:
> > Quoting Mark K. Kim (lugod at cbreak.org):
> > > Just connect the analytical machine to a Linux box using an ethernet
> > > cable and have Linux box create a Windows share using Samba.  So you
> > > don't have to fiddle with the parallel port.
> >
> > Really, this _is_ the best advice.  Although you can force network
> > traffic over RS-232c serial or Centronics parallel ports, it's both slow
> > and twitchy.  The price of admission for ethernet -- whether you do it
> > using just a crossover cable or a pair of regular cables and an old
> > throwaway hub -- is really low and absolutely worth the money.
> >
> > > PS: Don't connect the two computers using the parallel port... Serial
> > > port is okay but not the parallel port (unless you wanna make a custom
> > > cable and write some custom real-time drivers!)
> >
> > As someone who's struggled through both, I'll take PLIP over parallel,
> > any day.  All you need is a "laplink" type parallel cable, and then
> > software setup is trivial.  (See the PLIP HOWTO.)  By contrast, with
> > serial, yes the cabling is more conventional, but then you have to fuss
> > around with all those communications settings at the software level --
> > and you get only pretty slow throughput, for your pains.
> >
> > Better to just buy two cheap NICs and a crossover cable, anyway.
>
> I think he wanted to make the computer *emulate* a printer. Which
> would be an interesting exercise, and would probably be as simple as
> using cat, assuming the machine isn't sending any formatting to the
> printer.

Indeed, that was what i was hinting at... would have made things a lot simpler 
if I would have just said it!

thanks for the correction

> Certainly PLIP isn't involved.
>
> If it's sending formatting, you might need GhostScript.

-- 
Dylan Beaudette
Soil Science Graduate Group
University of California at Davis