06 - Remote and Network Printing¶

This document answers "is printing done over the network (TCP or COSMOS)?" The short answer for the SINTRAN era: there is no TCP/IP printing; remote printing happens either over NORDNET / COSMOS (NORD-to-NORD) or through a Remote Job Entry (RJE) emulator to a non-NORD mainframe. Both are documented below, with a clear line between what is verified and what is not.

Sources: ../../Reference-Manuals/ND-60.134.2 EN SINTRAN III Communication Guide.md chapter 3 (RJE) and its remote-batch material; ../../Reference-Manuals/SINTRAN-COMMANDS-REFERENCE.md (APPEND-REMOTE).

1. There is no TCP/IP printing here¶

SINTRAN III predates TCP/IP as the standard. Networking is done with Norsk Data's own stacks: NORDNET (NORD-to-NORD networking) and COSMOS (the wider ND network/communications product family, including X.25). "Network printing" on these machines means one of the two mechanisms below - not an LPR/ IPP/socket print service.

UNVERIFIED: the exact COSMOS product boundaries and version details are not re-derived here; this document describes the SINTRAN-visible mechanisms. For the network stack itself see the XMSG/COSMOS material elsewhere in this repository (../XMSG/) and the Communication Guide.

2. NORD-to-NORD: COSMOS Spooling (the real network-printing product)¶

The proper "print to a printer on another NORD computer" product is COSMOS Spooling, also called C-S-S (COSMOS Spooling Service). It is documented in the System Supervisor manual (../../Operations/SINTRAN/ND-30.003.007 EN SINTRAN III System Supervisor.md, section 5.6) and is built on the COSMOS File-Transfer subsystem, which rides on XMSG.

2.1 How it works¶

The operator defines a list of local printer names. Each local name is an alias that maps to a printer on a local or remote system. Users only ever learn the local names - they never need to know the real printer names on the remote machines (System Supervisor 5.6).

The flow (manual, Figure 39) uses spooling queues twice:

   User prints in NOTIS / application
        |  -> copied to a local COSMOS spooling file
        v
   COSMOS Spooling Queue on MY-COMPUTER   (RT-program COSPO)
        |  -> sent over XMSG port to the remote system
        v
   Remote system's spooling queue         (RT-program XFTRAD on the remote host)
        |
        v
   Real printer on the remote system

Doing it in two stages (local queue, then remote queue) keeps the user's wait time minimal - their print returns as soon as the local copy is made.

2.2 Operator setup (verified commands)¶

Create the transport peripheral file once: @SET-PERIPHERAL-FILE "COSMOS-SPOOLING" with DEVICE NUMBER (OCT): 1731.
Startup mode files load and start the spooler RT-program COSPO (@RTON COSPO), start spooling on COSMOS-SPOOLING, and define the network printers (COS-DEF-PRIN). (System Supervisor Table 16.)
The operator manages printer definitions with the COSMOS Spooling Service program (@COS-SPOOL-SERVIC, run as user SYSTEM). Its commands include:

C-S-S command	Purpose
`DEFINE-PRINTER <local name> <remote system> <remote printer> <header Y/N> <no. of local spooling files>`	Map a local printer name to a real printer on a remote system.
`DELETE-PRINTER <local name>`	Remove a local printer definition.
`LIST-PRINTERS`	List the defined local printers.
`LIST-NAMES <system>`	List printer names on a system.
`CHANGE-PASSWORD <remote system> <password>`	Credentials for the remote FLOPPY-USER.
`GET-FILE-STATISTICS`, `LIST-SERVER-ERRORS`, `DEBUGPRINT-ON/OFF`	Diagnostics.

A local printer definition with no remote printer name is a default printer - used when a user prints without naming one (System Supervisor 5.6).

So the NORD-to-NORD network-printing answer is: COSMOS Spooling over XMSG, with an operator-maintained name map, not a raw remote-file hack.

2.3 The simpler remote-file view¶

Underneath, the transport is COSMOS File-Transfer, and the Communication Guide's remote-file examples show output going to a remote line-printer directly (e.g. a compiler listing "output to the remote line-printer"). COSMOS Spooling is the managed, operator-friendly layer on top of that capability.

3. To a non-NORD mainframe: Remote Job Entry (RJE)¶

To submit work (including print output) to a large non-NORD host, SINTRAN uses an RJE emulator - a foreground program that makes the ND machine look like that vendor's remote batch terminal. Verified facts (Communication Guide chapter 3):

RJE is delivered as software packages emulating RJE terminals for CDC, Honeywell, IBM, Siemens and UNIVAC equipment. (These, plus interactive terminal emulators for IBM 3270, Honeywell VIP 7750 and Univac UTS-400, form the "NORD Intelligent Data Terminals" / IDT packages.)
User SYSTEM loads and starts the emulator as a foreground program. On start it allocates a terminal (normally terminal 2) as the remote batch console.
Once running, any timesharing user may append jobs to a batch queue in the local computer; the jobs contain the host's job control language, and are sent to the host in due course.

`@APPEND-REMOTE`¶

@APPEND-REMOTE <remote computer>,<input file>

<remote computer> - a peripheral file name denoting the host. Standard names are IBM, CDC, UNIVAC, HONEYWELL-BULL (default type REM).
<input file> - the file containing one or more batch jobs; it must have read access for user RT.

Example:

@APPEND-REMOTE UNIVAC,JOB-1

appends JOB-1 to the batch queue for the remote computer UNIVAC.

Related commands (Communication Guide 3.x): @LIST-REMOTE-QUEUE lists a remote batch queue; @DELETE-REMOTE-QUEUE-ENTRY removes an entry.

RJE is the path by which print output destined for a mainframe leaves the ND machine: you submit a job, and the host does the printing on its own printers (or returns output). It is batch/job-oriented, not a live device queue like local spooling.

4. Three flavours of "print/submit elsewhere"¶

The Communication Guide summarises three ways to run batch (and thus route output), which maps directly onto the printing options:

Local batch - runs on this ND machine; output can be spooled locally (docs 04/05).
NORDNET remote batch - runs on another NORD computer; can direct output to that machine's (remote) printer (section 2).
RJE - submits to a non-NORD host; the host runs and prints it (section 3).

5. Interaction with XMSG memory (operational note)¶

The Communication Guide warns that XMSG must be started (its PAGING-OFF and buffer-area segments fixed in physical memory) before starting NORDNET or SPOOLING, "since these can 'steal' the POF space reserved for XMSG when they fix their segments." So on a system that uses XMSG, spooling and NORDNET start ordering matters. This is an operational configuration detail, cited here because it directly couples the spooler to the networking start-up sequence.

6. What is verified vs. not (honesty note)¶

Verified from the manuals: COSMOS Spooling (C-S-S) architecture, the COSPO / XFTRAD RT-programs, the two-stage queue, the COSMOS-SPOOLING device (1731 octal), the C-S-S service-program commands (DEFINE-PRINTER etc.); RJE packages and vendors, @APPEND-REMOTE syntax and standard host names; remote line-printer output over COSMOS File-Transfer; and the XMSG start-order caveat.
Not fully verified here: the byte-level COSMOS/X.25 transport of print traffic and the exact remote-file naming syntax for a one-off remote printer (outside C-S-S). Good candidates to confirm from the Communication Guide in full or from the SINTRAN source (see doc 07).