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by zzo38computer 622 days ago
> Only the Apple Laserwriter didn't really do this (I don't think) because it was an exclusively PostScript printer. Instead, you shoved PostScript down the wire.

It would be possible to write a PostScript program that emulates ESC/P (or PCL), although then you would have to send an entire page (or a page break) before the page would be printed, unlike the old dot-matrix line printers that you can print one line at a time, PostScript can only print one page at a time.
1 comments
mmmlinux 622 days ago
Its not like a laser printer can really print line by line though.
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ssl-3 622 days ago
An old HP laser printer will buffer plain text line-by-line, and will print a page once the last line is buffered.

That buffer could have several random programs' outputs in it, all just dumped as simply as possible to /dev/lp0 (or lpt1 or whatever), and it works.

A LaserWriter can't do these things.

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tonyedgecombe 622 days ago
>will print a page once the last line is buffered.

You could usually set a timeout to eject the page if no data had been received for a while.

>A LaserWriter can't do these things.

The LaserWriter could emulate a Diablo printer which would do the same thing. It wouldn't accept PostScript then though.

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