Printing questions

[Christofer C. Bell]

Sam Clippinger wrote:
> 
> When last we left our heroes, Jeffrey Watts had just said:
> > Welp, this is an easy one.  When you bought your printer, it probably said
> > something like "Optimized for Microsoft Windows".  Yep, you guessed it,
> > your printer is a Winprinter.
> >
> > How do I know this?  BY THE POWER OF THE INTERNET.  Heh.
> >
> > http://www.hp.com/cposupport/printers/support_doc/bpd04723.html#P409_4800
> >
> > Notice that it doesn't list MacOS or MS-DOS (unless thru Winders) as
> > supported OSes.  This means "WinPrinter".
> 
> I respectfully disagree with this assessment.  By that logic, any machine with
> the little "Designed for Windows NT" sticker on it shouldn't run Linux.  But
> they do.
> 
> AFAIK, in order to create a "WinProduct", you have to make a peripheral that
> converses with its driver via an unpublished interface/language, then only
> produce drivers for it that run in Windows.  To the best of my knowledge, HP
> cannot do this.  They have very carefully crafted an interface language called
> PCL (Printer Control Language) that they use to control their printers.
> 
> HP works very hard to keep their printers backwards-compatible with previous
> versions of their PCL.  This means that their HP Deskjet driver should work
> with an HP Deskjet+.  An HP Laserjet 4 driver should work with an HP Laserjet 5.
> The only problem with those kinds of combinations is that you cannot take
> advantage of the new features that the later-model printer offers.
> 
> I don't know if HP's PCL is common knowledge, published or reverse engineered.
> But the fact that my HP Deskjet works in Linux means that _someone_ out there
> knows HP's PCL.  Thus, if all else fails, the HP Deskjet 3487683764CPMTSQ++++
> printers should run if you configure them as old HP Deskjets.
> 
> If I'm correct that HP is careful about their backwards compatibility and
> since printers hook in through the parallel port, any HP Deskjet model should
> work in Linux.  It may not print in color, it may not duplex, collate, staple
> or whatever else, but it will print.  That means it is far, far from being
> "junk".
> 
> Just my $0.02.

Suffice it to say that you're wrong.  Period.  End of story.

--
Chris