Re: TCP/IP Connection software

[Scott Klement <klemscot@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The Open-Source Tn5250 that James is referring to supports all of the
printer attributes that Rumba supports.   PLUS it supports output to
postscript and PDF which Rumba doesn't do.   PLUS it has VASTLY better SSL
support than Rumba (at least, as far as Rumba 7.0)

In PDF or PostScript output, you cannot do full AFP documents, and you
cannot change the CPI in the middle of the document.

However, that's ONLY true of those methods.  If you use Host Print
Transform, you can do AFPDS, with graphics and barcodes and absolute
character positioning and fonts, just like you can with Rumba.

I use both TN5250 and Rumba quite seriously.  While Rumba has more
features for the actual display session, Tn5250 blows Rumba away for
printing support and SSL support.



On Thu, 14 Mar 2002, James Rich wrote:

> On Thu, 14 Mar 2002, Vernon Hamberg wrote:
>
> > As aomeone else said, free and cheaper TN5250 products don't usually have
> > the nice printing. If they do, it's usually LPD, and I like the
> > CA/PCOMM/Rumba/etc. printer sessions better-all 400 printer attributes are
> > retained, where LPD can't do that.
>
> Ouch, that hurts :)  If by "nice printing" you mean supporting IPDS then
> yes, I think you are correct.  But if you use SCS then the linux5250
> package does very well.  It can use lpr, but doesn't have to.  It is very
> simple to set up, too (and for me is far less troublesome to configure
> than client access).  The only thing it doesn't support at this time is
> changing CPI in the middle of a report.
>
> James Rich
> james@eaerich.com
>