> Then I tried spooling the different queues to the same directory. As long
> as I only had one type of file at once, it was fine. If I added another
> file, the computer waited for the first to complete before printing the
> second.  The problem was that the second file was run through the same
> filters are the first. The whole point was different filters! (One goes
> through ghostscript, one's raw text w/ nl->cr translation, and one's raw
> data).

I wrote a filter program which detects the file type being printed and runs
the data through ghostscript or whatever.  Now I can use the same printer
(lpr without options) to print plain ASCII, PS, PDF, HPGL, Gerber, or Canon
raw data files.  Everything works pretty well - the only problem in my case
is detecting the file type reliably.  PS and PDF are easy, HPGL quite easy,
Gerber works.. but telling ASCII from raw data files can be difficult (I
get these 'raw' files from my AmigaOS machines) because the raw files may
sometimes look just like ASCII.

My filter was written for my own needs only.  It can't be reconfigured
without a recompile.  I hope I can make it better sometime, but I'm too
busy right now...

  -jm


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