LaserWriter IINTX: Timeout Problems



I have a Compaq PC connected via serial cable to an LaserWriter IINTX.
I used terminal emulation to enter PostScript interactive mode and changed the
default timeout parameters so that jobs never time out. I want to change
these parameters back to a more normal setting.

When I enter the interactive mode and keys in "statusdict begin" followed by
a carriage return, the command is processed and the whole job finishes.
However, I can't get the LaserWriter IINTX to accept any of the remaining
commands required to reset the default settings. Normally, I would get the
PS> prompt, but since the change was made to the timeout defaults, this is no
longer the case.

1) How can I change back to reasonable default times?

2) Why am I seeing this problem? Is there something strange going on in the
product, or am I doing something that's not permitted?

Nevertheless, printing from applications using the batch mode still works OK,
and jobs still seem to timeout.

Using the following sequence of commands, we were able to set and restore
timeout defaults using both batch and interactive modes. Line numbers are for
reference in this article only, and are not required by the printer.

1 serverdict begin 0 exitserver
2 /helvtica findfont
3 15 scalefont
4 setfont
5 72 700 moveto
6 /str 20 string def
7 %statusdict begin 0 60 30 setdefaulttimeouts
8 statusdict begin defaulttimeouts str cvs show
9 str cvs show
10 str cvs show
11 showpage

What may be confusing in interactive mode is that after typing line 1 the "PS>"
prompt is no longer displayed and the printer stops echoing keystrokes to the
user. Type line 2 to prove that commands are still accepted by the printer.
It returns a notice that it can't find "helvtica" and is substituting courier.
Turning local echo on after line 1 will eliminate blind typing.

Commenting out line 7 lets the user power-cycle the printer to see that the
changes are permanent. Lines 8, 9, and 10 pop values returned by
defaulttimeouts off the stack in the order wait, manual feed, job.

Information on setdefaulttimeouts and defaulttimeouts is available on page 300
of the "PostScript Language: Reference Manual" from Addison-Wesley (ISBN #
0-201-10174-2).


Published Date: Feb 18, 2012