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Conference iosg::all-in-1_v30

Title:*OLD* ALL-IN-1 (tm) Support Conference
Notice:Closed - See Note 4331.l to move to IOSG::ALL-IN-1
Moderator:IOSG::PYE
Created:Thu Jan 30 1992
Last Modified:Tue Jan 23 1996
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:4343
Total number of notes:18308

3932.0. "ALL-IN-1 Printers Issue." by GLDOA::CARLEN (Cloyce Carlen @TLO) Wed Mar 02 1994 19:26

In a meeting to discuss a $2 M+ "Office Automation" expansion, we were
told of a major printing issue using ALL-IN-1 English and KANJII output.

The customer was told by Digital Representatives to purchase NTX/J
Appleprinters (?) to support English and Japanese text documents as well
as PostScript documents. 

The issue is that the current configuration of these printers will loose
print jobs or cause the printers to hang thus requiring a manual
restart.  In some cases the customer has had their printer queues
killed.  Therefore, the System Manager and his Manager(s) are reluctant
to expand their Digital environment. 

Need some advise on how to resolve this situation because customer is
considering replacing ALL-IN-1 and Digital Systems with a competitor. 


Thanks,

Cloyce

DTN: 420-5426

Email: Cloyce Carlen @TLO or GLDOA::CARLEN


<<<<<  Cross Posted in A1INFO  >>>>>
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3932.1More information pleaseIOSG::NEWLANDRichard Newland, IOSG, REO2-G/L2Thu Mar 03 1994 09:3624
We need more information to help you.

1.  What version of ALL-IN-1 are you using?

2.  What type of documents are you printing from ALL-IN-1, e.g. ASCII, 
    WPS-PLUS, etc.?

3.  What type of final form print files are you creating, e.g. PostScript,
    LP11, etc.?
    
4.  Your description say that print jobs are lost.  Do you mean that
    ALL-IN-1 does not create the VMS Print job, or that the ALL-IN-1 does
    create the VMS print job but it fails to print.  If if is the latter
    this is more likely to be a problem with the VMS Print Symbionts and
    not with ALL-IN-1.

5.  Is background formatting being used, and if so are the failures 
    occuring during the formatting or the printing?

6.  What happens when Print Jobs are sent to the same Print Queues from
    DCL? 


Richard
3932.2Answers to Your Questions.GLDOA::CARLENCloyce Carlen @TLOFri Mar 04 1994 19:0157
  Richard,

  Per Your request for more information, I have reviewed your questions
  with the Office Automation System Manager and here are the answers:
  
  
  
  1.  What version of ALL-IN-1 are you using?
	-  ALL-IN-1 Version 2.4 
	   Not sure if it is the Japanese version with English as the second 
           language.
	-  Wants to upgrade to Version 3.0, if we can assure it will work 
	   in their environment.
  
  2.  What type of documents are you printing from ALL-IN-1, e.g. ASCII, 
      WPS-PLUS, etc.?

	-  ASCII & WPS-PLUS

  3.  What type of final form print files are you creating, e.g. PostScript,
      LP11, etc.?
  
	-  Appears to be LP11
      
  4.  Your description say that print jobs are lost.  Do you mean that
      ALL-IN-1 does not create the VMS Print job, or that the ALL-IN-1 does
      create the VMS print job but it fails to print.  If if is the latter
      this is more likely to be a problem with the VMS Print Symbionts and
      not with ALL-IN-1.

	-  The latter appears to be the case.
  
  5.  Is background formatting being used, and if so are the failures 
      occuring during the formatting or the printing?

	-  Background is being used in some cases, per the System Manager.
	-  Print jobs are retained in the formatter.
	-  Users receive LPS errors and their print jobs are flushed.
	   e.i. LPS-W-IOERROR's

  6.  What happens when Print Jobs are sent to the same Print Queues from
      DCL? 

	-  Print jobs from DCL are okay to the ASCII, PostScript queues, he 
           couldn't test KANJII for me.
  

  Please let me know what additional information that you may need to 
  solve this printing issue.

  Thank you in advance for your help and advise.

  						   Regards,
  
  						   Cloyce
  

3932.3More questionsIOSG::NEWLANDRichard Newland, IOSG, REO2-G/L2Fri Mar 04 1994 22:2351
>  3.  What type of final form print files are you creating, e.g. PostScript,
>      LP11, etc.?
>  
>	-  Appears to be LP11
      
What Format Style is specified on the Print Destination form?  If this
field is usually left blank TAB to this field to display the default format
style. 



>  5.  Is background formatting being used, and if so are the failures 
>      occurring during the formatting or the printing?
>
>	-  Background is being used in some cases, per the System Manager.
>	-  Print jobs are retained in the formatter.
>	-  Users receive LPS errors and their print jobs are flushed.
>	   e.i. LPS-W-IOERROR's

Are jobs being 'retained on error' in the OA$FORMATTER queue?  If so, what 
is the job status?  Could you do a SHOW QUEUE/ALL/FULL OA$FORMATTER to 
display all the job information.

When formatting jobs on the OA$FORMATTER queue fail they are retained and a 
print job is not created.  The OA$FORMATTER queue only creates a VMS Print 
Job when the formatting is performed successfully.

The error 'LPS-W-IOERROR' is coming from the Print Server software, which 
shows that in this case OA$FORMATTER successfully performed the formatting 
and created a Print Job on a Print Server print queue.


Are you getting formatter job errors, print job errors, or both?



>  6.  What happens when Print Jobs are sent to the same Print Queues from
>
>      DCL? 
>
>	-  Print jobs from DCL are okay to the ASCII, PostScript queues, he 
>           couldn't test KANJII for me.
  
Are the errors reproducible?  Do certain documents always fail to print?

If so what happens if you select a problem document and do a Print to FILE, 
specifying the same Format Style, and then use DCL to print the resulting 
file to the same print queue?


Richard
3932.4Additional Information.GLDOA::CARLENCloyce Carlen @TLOMon Mar 14 1994 14:2849
	Richard, 

	I noticed that the customer has an older version of CPS.  Before we 
	spend any more time looking into their printing issues, I have 
	recommended that the customer purchase and upgrade to DCPS.  

	Then we can focus on the KANJII & English printing issues from 
	ALL-IN-1.  In the meantime, is it possible to find out any 
	information on the Apple Laserwriter II NTX/J?  This model was 
	recommended by Digital(?) for printing from ALL-IN-1, it has 35 
	fonts in ROM, 4MB RAM and a 40MB SCSI device with 636 fonts on 
	external device???

	Again thank you for your expertise in focusing our effort in 
	responding to this customer's issue.  Until I became involved in 
	this issue, the customer had perceived Digital as leaving their 
	installed base "in the lurch".

	Regards,

	Cloyce

*****************************************************************************

Answers to .3's Follow up questions from my meeting last week.


>  3.  What type of final form print files are you creating, e.g. PostScript,
>      LP11, etc.?

	After TABing the field displayed LP11


>  5.  Is background formatting being used, and if so are the failures 
>      occurring during the formatting or the printing?
>


	The System Manger has set up his system to "retain on error" in 
	the OA$FORMATTER. Now The system is showing print job errors.  
	However, None appeared while I was there.


>  6.  What happens when Print Jobs are sent to the same Print Queues from
>      DCL? 

	Was able to test ASCII and PostScript successfully, didnot have 
	access to a Japanese ALL-IN-1 document.

3932.5Upgrade CPSIOSG::NEWLANDRichard Newland, IOSG, REO2-G/L2Wed Mar 16 1994 12:0151
I agree with your decision to upgrade CPS to DCPS.  I don't know anything
about the Apple Laserwriter II NTX/J so I can't help you with this. 


>>  3.  What type of final form print files are you creating, e.g. PostScript,
>>      LP11, etc.?
>
>	After TABing the field displayed LP11

This means that WPS-PLUS documents will be formatted to simple ASCII files.
What is the FORMAT master entry information for "ASCII EDT", because this 
will determined how ASCII documents are formatted.  Is the 'Standard 
formatting' field set to Y or N?



>>  5.  Is background formatting being used, and if so are the failures 
>>      occurring during the formatting or the printing?
>>
>	The System Manger has set up his system to "retain on error" in 
>	the OA$FORMATTER. Now The system is showing print job errors.  
>	However, None appeared while I was there.

Could you confirm that by 'print job errors' you mean jobs on VMS Print 
queues, and not the ALL-IN-1 OA$FORMATTER queue.



>>  6.  What happens when Print Jobs are sent to the same Print Queues from
>>      DCL? 
>
>	Was able to test ASCII and PostScript successfully, didnot have 
>	access to a Japanese ALL-IN-1 document.

I don't understand why ASCII files printed from VMS work but when printed
from ALL-IN-1 they do not.  

In previous investigations of similar problems I have found that the
difference was caused by the processing ALL-IN-1 was configured to perform. 
When an ASCII file was printed from VMS the file it was put directly on the
queue.  When an ASCII document was printed from ALL-IN-1 it was formatted 
by the WPS-PLUS formatter and the resulting listing file submitted to the 
print queue.  The ASCII file was not the same as the listing file created
by ALL-IN-1, which was the cause of the differences.  Thus the differences 
were caused by 'WHAT' was being printed, and not from 'WHERE' the print 
operation was performed.



Richard