Typesetter spoolers - How do *you* do it?

Bruce Freeman bjf at utcsstat.UUCP
Wed Aug 22 07:04:24 AEST 1984


Unlike Research, users at our site do not just grab the typesetter whenever
it is not busy and start dumping stuff at it. Like most sites we spool stuff
to the typesetter. Currently this is done with a rather ancient spooling
system which was originally written under PWB and later converted to V7. Well
now we are going to 4.2BSD and this software has been declared dead. We
plan to use MDQS but have run into what must be a fairly generic problem
with typesetter spoolers.
   Unlike line printers, typesetters need attention from operators. The
cassette must be changed when it fills up with paper (Guess what typesetter
we have?) and so on. This means one must keep track of how much paper has been
consumed and bother the operators to add more when you run low. Our question is
how do you handle this at your site?
   The current plan, based on how the old system did it, is to pause() and
wait to be hit by a signal which indicates the paper has been added. Then
we simply pick up where we left off and continue on our merry way. Is this
the only way or is there a nice clean way other sites handle this problem?
We would be interested in hearing how you handle this problem.

Curious,
Bruce
-- 
Bruce Freeman	University of Toronto	{decvax|harpo|ihnp4}!utcsstat!bjf



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