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Date:      Sat, 29 Oct 2011 00:23:56 -0700
From:      perryh@pluto.rain.com
To:        wblock@wonkity.com
Cc:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, rfg@tristatelogic.com
Subject:   Re: Fast personal printing _without_ CUPS
Message-ID:  <4eabaa0c.mUEkZVfFc0vWrFDA%perryh@pluto.rain.com>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.00.1110280039340.7372@wonkity.com>
References:  <23575.1319749979@tristatelogic.com> <alpine.BSF.2.00.1110280039340.7372@wonkity.com>

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Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com> wrote:

> A better example would be a web browser or word processor.  The
> program stops responding to further input until the printer has
> received the entire print job.  This bothered people enough that
> they came up with lpd/lpr ...

Back when lpr/lpd were first written, it was not just a matter of
the printer "receiving" the entire print job but of (nearly) the
entire job being completely printed.  Few printers had more than a
one-line buffer in those days.  There was also the matter of sharing
the printer among a considerable number of concurrent users, those
being the days of multiuser PDP-11's and VAXen.

BTW there was nothing particularly innovative about lpr/lpd --
mainframes like IBM 360's and even 7090's had been using print
spoolers for years.



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