Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: 7 vits vs. 8 bits (again)
Message-ID: <1990Jul3.172953.6474@zoo.toronto.edu>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <2414@acorn.co.uk> <1990Jun23.184530.1326@cbnewsl.att.com> <184@heaven.woodside.ca.us> <1363@chinacat.Unicom.COM> <1990Jun27.201333.10418@utzoo.uucp> <3439@adobe.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 3 Jul 90 17:29:53 GMT

In article <3439@adobe.UUCP> shore@adobe.COM (Andrew Shore) writes:
>>... What is wanted, rather than inventing
>>half-assed botches with modem-control lines and the like, is to have the
>>printer speak a *real* protocol -- say TCP/IP -- over the serial line.
>
>A bit of history here.  Would you believe that very early on in PostScript
>development (early 1984) we considered having Kermit be a communications
>mode on the original LaserWriter...

Nah, I don't believe it. :-) :-) :-)

A plausible notion, although as you note, it does have performance problems.

>Serial IP is another good idea.  Whose flavor of SLIP do you like?
>Or should we have waited for PPP?  Or invented our own?

Last I heard there was only one flavor of SLIP in wide use, although
I suppose there's nothing that deranged people won't mutate...  Having
*something*, preferably standard SLIP, would have been better than
having nothing.  (Of course, it does get you into the swamp of assigning
IP addresses and such, although there is an EEPROM in the LW at least.)

Yes, I'm aware that insignificant trivia :-) like delivery dates do
sometimes limit what can be done...  Sigh.
-- 
"Either NFS must be scrapped or NFS    | Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
must be changed."  -John K. Ousterhout |  henry@zoo.toronto.edu   utzoo!henry
