The ECN No Name Newsletter is no longer being published. This is an archived issue.
[previous article]The Engineering Computer Network (ECN) currently supports 117 printers, 64 of which are restricted to use only by authorized people. That leaves 53 other printers to choose from. How do you decide which printer you should use?
The first step is to look at the printers(1) manual page. Type "help printers" to see it online.
Column one contains the "name" of the printer. Use the lpr(1) command to print files. There are several ways to select which printer your file will be printed on. The simplest thing to do is to use the default printer. To select the default printer with lpr, don't specify a printer on the command line. If a user wants to print the file, "foo", on the default printer, for example, the correct command is:
lpr foo
If you want to print your file on a specific printer or your machine does not have a default printer, use the lpr option "-P" followed by the printer name (for the exact syntax of this command, type "help lpr"). For example, if a user wants to print the file "prog1.f" on the Dataprinter in Civil 2154, the command line is:
lpr -Pcd prog1.f
Column two in the printer list is labeled "Access". The printers that are available for everyone to use are marked "Pub", which indicates that they are for public use. Printers labeled "Res" are restricted and the line printer system will not allow users to print to them unless the user's login is in a special permission file. Users who need access to restricted printers should see their site specialist about getting permission.
Printers are available to all machines on the network. Users are not required to have accounts on the machine the printer is on to use that printer.
Column three in the printer list is the "Description" column. It usually contains the location of the various printers. Users probably want to select a printer that is located physically close to where they are doing their work to ease output retrieval.
Column four is the "Type" column. It contains a code that describes what the intended use is for a printer. Users should select a printer that is suited to their application.
PROGRAM LISTINGS should be printed on high-capacity line printers like the Dataprinter. There is a Dataprinter at most of the public terminal sites.
HIGH-QUALITY printing, such as theses or letters, should be printed on a laser printer like an Apple Laserwriter or an Imagen.
GRAPHICS should be printed on special graphics devices or on a Printronix.
Please note: program listings should NOT be printed on a Printronix; they are for graphics applications only!
If you have questions after reading the online documentation, talk to a consultant or ask your site specialist for help.
HTML