Date: Wed, 05 Mar 1997 22:10:12 -0600 From: dkelly@hiwaay.net To: chad@anasazi.com Cc: jmz@FreeBSD.org, freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: a2ps port/package Message-ID: <199703060410.WAA07798@nexgen.hiwaay.net> In-Reply-To: Message from chad@anasazi.com (Chad R. Larson) of "Tue, 04 Mar 1997 20:48:59 MST." <9703050349.AA29120@chad.anasazi.com>
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Chad R. Larson writes: > > I downloaded the a2ps package in the 2.1.7 tree and found that it would > only print to standard out. This isn't the way I've grown used to it > behaving, so I pulled the package and rebuilt it. Same behavior. Actually, I like it the way it is, it retains the "tool" nature of Unix where one builds on other tools to arrive at the goal. If one throws ASCII at a printer then it should know how to convert to PS if needed. If one throws PS at a printer it should know what to do with that. When I first read the a2ps docs my first thought was to find a way to defeat the automatic pipe to lpr. But then I found the FreeBSD port already didn't pipe to the printer and was happy. Meanwhile I've found the FreeBSD patched port compiles perfectly on Sun and SGI systems... :-) I like the requirement that one explicitly do something extra to get output to the printer rather than an automatic action. Recently a "man -t something" on a Solaris system really bugged me because output went directly to the printer. Never did figure out how to intercept the output. I was bugged because the printer couldn't handle Postscript. Yet. I was looking to generate a Postscript file to play with Ghostscript. -- David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@hiwaay.net ===================================================================== The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its capacity -- the rest is overhead for the operating system.
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