Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Pragmatic Programmer and SAP Printer Device Type

I have been reading Pragmatic Programmer and I like it. Some of the tips are plain old common sense, but sometimes, it is precisely these reminders that are needed when I get too busy with work.

Some of the Pragmatic Programmer Tips:

  1. Care about my craft.
  2. Think! About my work.
  3. Provide options, don't make lame excuses.
  4. Don't live with broken windows.
  5. Be a catalyst for change.
  6. Remember the big picture.
  7. Make quality a requirement issue.
  8. Invest regularly in my knowledge portfolio.
  9. Critically analyze what I read and hear.

Spend most of the day tracking down an SAP printer issue. The old device type file is not working for SAP ECC 5.0 and since I know a little postscript, I offered to help. I received a file with a pri extension and I don't recognize the file format. Finally, I was able to find the following quote:

A Device Type in SAP R/3 is very similar to a printer driver. SAP includesset of device types with their R/3 software. The set includes standard PostScript and PCL device types, as well as device types for most printer manufacturers’ devices. The standard set does not, however, include device types for Xerox DocuPrint and DocuTech printers.

SAP provides instructions for modifying the device types included with the software, but modification requires PostScript programming knowledge and familiarity with Xerox products.

I tried looking at an existing SAP postscript device type file and the bad Xerox DocuPrint device type file. I could not make sense of it. I suspect I will need initimate knowledge of the Xerox printer before I can even successful debug this problem. Googling on these subject did not return much useful information.

Aargh! I can't find any information on modifying SAP device type files and I'm not familiar with Xerox products. Need find a consultant for this.