4 April 1997.

Version 1.30 or PPR has been released.

==========================================================================

PPR is a Unix print spooler expressly designed for operating PostScript
printers.  It was written by David Chappell at the Trinity College Computing
Center in Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.A.

==========================================================================

If you wish to subscribe to the PPR mailing list, send mail to 
"majordomo@mail.trincoll.edu".  The message should consist of the single
line "subscribe ppr-list".  You may post messages to the list
by sending them to "ppr-list@mail.trincoll.edu".

==========================================================================
 Major Features
==========================================================================

* Operates PostScript printers connected to parallel and serial ports,
  AppleTalk, LAN Manager X clients, LPD servers, and RAW TCP/IP adapters
  such as Extended Systems PocketPrintServers.

* If the interface to the printer supports it, captures messages returned by
  the printer while a job is printing.  If PostScript error messages are
  received, the job is placed in a special hold state for later examination.

* Sends notices to users when jobs are completed or when jobs fail due to
  PostScript errors or other problems.  (This is not supported on all client
  platforms.)

* Detects printer faults and attempts to clear them automatically.  If this
  fails, an operator can be informed.

* Interprets Document Structuring Convention comments in order to support
  advanced features including printer redirection, reverse order printing,
  collated copies, font downloading, font substitution, and forced duplex
  mode.

* Can pass print jobs through GhostScript before sending them to the printer
  in order to print PostScript files on non-PostScript printers.

* Automatically detects non-PostScript input and passes it through
  appropriate filters.  These include a line printer emulator which first
  measures the file in order to select proper margins, point size,
  orientation, and line spacing.  It also supports overstrike bold and
  underlining.  An Epson compatible dot matrix printer emulator is also
  provided.  When PPR is installed, it searches for certain other programs
  such as NetPBM, TeX, and Groff.  If these are found, PPR arranges to use
  them as filters to automatically convert JPEG, BMP, GIF, LaTeX and other
  files to PostScript.

* Automatically detects files compressed with Unix Compress or Gzip and 
  uncompresses them before printing.

* Advertises printer queues on an AppleTalk network so that Macintosh
  computers can print to them even if the printers don't support AppleTalk.

* Accepts jobs from AT&T's LAN Manager for Unix and sends notices using the 
  LAN Manager messaging facilities.

* Accepts jobs from the Samba LAN Manager compatible server and sends
  notices using Samba's messaging facilities.

* Accepts jobs from other computers using the LPD protocol.

* While printing, the percentage of the job which has been sent is displayed
  in the queue listing, together with the page the spooler is transmitting,
  and, when the printer supportes it, the number of pages which have been
  printed.

* Prints jobs N-Up or generates signatures and booklets using Donald
  Markuson's N-Up dictionary.

* Keeps track of printer usage by means of user accounts from which money is
  deducted for each page printed on designated printers.  (Client support
  for this is still limited.)  PPR also has the ability to log all jobs.

* Allows a form to be "mounted" on each of a printer's input bins.  When a
  print job arrives, PPR will attempt to determine what kind of paper it 
  should be printed on and select the correct bin.  If the correct form
  is not mounted, the job will be held until an operator mounts it.

* Prints banner pages which include information gleened from the Document
  Structure Comments, such as user name, number of pages, and warnings
  concerning defective DSC comments.

* Caches fonts received from Macintosh clients so that they need not be 
  downloaded again.  This saves time the next time the document is printed.
  (This only works with LaserWriter 8.x.)

* If MS-Windows TrueType fonts are manually installed in the spooler, it
  will convert them to PostScript and download them on demand.

=============================================================================
 Compatible Systems
=============================================================================

PPR was origionally written to work on AT&T's 6386 WGS and StarServer E
running Unix System V Release 4.0 and AT&T's port of LAN Manager to Unix
with AT&T's AppleTalk Network Program.

It was later ported to SunOS 5.3 (Solaris 2.3) and CAP60 patch level 194.
Netatalk is not yet supported on this platform.

Linux is currently the principal development system.  An extra library
called NATALI can be obtained from the place you got PPR.  This library
allows PPR to work with Netatalk under Linux.

DEC OSF/1 is also supported.  It has not been tested with CAP.

Support for IRIX 6.3 has just been introduced but has not been tested very
well.

The complete system has not been tested on 386BSD/NetBSD/FreeBSD, however it
should run with only minor modifications.

Support for SunOS 4.1.3 is included in the current release but nobody has
reported whether or not it works.

Windows NT is not yet supported.

============================================================================
 Intended Audiance
============================================================================

PPR is in some sense a research project designed to explore the
possibilities of the Adobe Document Structuring convention, PPD files,
and automatic filtering.  The goal is to make printing easy for end users.

However, PostScript can be very complex and PPR is a very complex piece of
code.  Considerable effort has been expended to make PPR easy to set up and
use.  All the same, a considerable level of expertise is required to
understand PPR's operation.

While PPR has been used with a number of PostScript generating applications,
it has not been possible to test it with every one.  This problem should be
of concern because most if not all PostScript generating applications have
one or more errors in their conformance to the Document Structuring
Convention.  When document structuring comments make serious factual errors
in their description of the structure of the document or concerning the
fonts and other resources required, PPR may fail to print it when a more
simple minded spooler would.

When unexpected results are obtained, it may be necessary to examine the
input and the output, manually interpreting the DSC comments.  Anyone
expecting to make serious application of PPR should first read and understand
Appendix G of "PostScript Language Reference Manual, Second Edition" as well
as "PostScript Printer Description File Format Specification".

That said, it should be noted that PPR has been extensively tested in an
environment containing hundreds of clients and dozens of printers.  The
clients have included Unix, MS-DOS, MS-Windows, and MacOS.

PPR is release at this time with the expectation that it will be of interest
to people who wish to explore the possibilities opened up by the Adobe
Document Structuring Convention.  If you are interested in that subject, you
can install the program, study its operation, and read the source code for
examples of how to parse DSC comments.

============================================================================
 Technical Support
============================================================================

Trinity College does not have a budget for providing technical support for
this product.  As stated above, this release is intended for use by persons
who already have a working knowledge of PostScript and the Document
Structuring Convention.

An installation manual, an incomplete technical description, and man pages
for most of the programs are provided.  We will also endeavor to participate
in the answering of questions sent to the PPR mailing list.  We regret that
Trinity College is not in a possition to provide technical support beyond
this.

Bug reports and suggestions are of course welcome.
Bug reports will be most useful they describe the exact steps necessary to
reproduce the problem.  Of course, if you can if include a fix or point out
the offending source file and function, please do so.

Bug reports should be sent to "ppr-bugs@mail.trincoll.edu".

If you have PostScript questions, it might be well to post them to the
Usenet news group "comp.languages.postscript".  Questions related to
CAP should be posted to "comp.protocols.appletalk".  Questions directly
related to PPR should be sent to the PPR mailing list.

============================================================================
 License Terms
============================================================================

Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this software and its
documentation for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided
that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that
copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting
documentation.  This software is provided "as is" without express or
implied warranty.

============================================================================
 Obtaining PPR
============================================================================

PPR may be obtained from "ftp://ppr-dist.trincoll.edu/pub/ppr/".
The current distribution includes the following files:

ppr-src-1.30.tar.gz       Source code for PPR
ppr-doc-1.30.tar.gz       Documentation for PPR
ppr-speach-1.30.tar.gz    Optional sound files for PPR
natali-1.22.tar.gz        A library needed for Netatalk support under Linux
ppr-cliprint-1.72.tar.gz  Client printing software for LANMAN/X

==============
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