IBM Mainframe and AS400 IPDS filters for CUPS

Helge Blischke H.Blischke at srz-berlin.de
Sat May 8 11:00:01 PDT 2004


Marco Willemse <anonymous at easysw.com> wrote:
>
> Request for comments...
>
> Wouldn't it be nice if Mainframe originated prints could
> use CUPS to get to non AFP Printers ?
>  [...]

Well, there are some (I suspect not more than half a dozen; I myself
only dealt with one of them) commercial AFP to PostScript converters
(usually Winxx based software packages) around - I'm not sure if putting
such a converter in front of each cheap printer would be 
economically feasible.

The idea of "hacking" a CUPS filter (afpstops or the like) sounds
promising on the first glance, but there is one thing that complicates
the scenary:
AFPDS is not only a print stream data format but in essence a protocol
used by the mainframe spooler and the printer to talk with one
another - think of forms, overly images, fonts and the like which 
can be stored on the printers (at least some printers by IBM and 
OCE, as far as I know), and think of switching between operating modes
(like line mode, enhanced line mode, and full APA mode). As far as 
I have understood the IPP RFCs and the CUPS book, these features 
seem not (or at least not yet) to be covered by IPP.

Without going into the technical details further, I'd suggest to think
of
the following approach:
- purchase one (only one) commercial converter which permits to pass
through
  certain information liek job name etc.
- tweak your mainframe spooler to insert a desination name into some of
the
  comments that the converter simply passes through
- forward the resulting PS stream to a properly configured CUPS server
  which has a filter installed that fishes for the destination info and
forwards
  the job to the proper printer.

Helge

-- 
H.Blischke at srz-berlin.de
H.Blischke at srz-berlin.com
H.Blischke at acm.org




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