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From: halliday@cheddar.cc.ubc.ca (Laura Halliday)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: Printing on the NeXT
Keywords: slow printing
Message-ID: <5615@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: 13 Nov 89 20:14:00 GMT
References: <953@abvax.UUCP> <5595@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Sender: news@cs.ubc.ca
Reply-To: halliday@cheddar.cc.ubc.ca (Laura Halliday)
Organization: UBC Computing Centre, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 14


Actually, I don't find the printing speed unacceptable on a NeXT (maybe I've
been corrupted by LaserWriter Plus print times...), but what I'd *really* like
to see is some way of adjusting the priority of the imaging process so that I
can do useful work while the system is printing something. Perhaps this could
be a new Preferences item: users who want fast printing could set the priority
high, and sit back and watch while the cube prints. Users who want to do some-
thing else while the system is printing could set the priority lower.

Transmitting the bitmap to the printer is a hard real-time operation, which is
why the printer has its own DMA channel. But constructing that bitmap in the
first place has no real-time constraints, other than the user's patience...

...laura