Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!jarthur!wilkins
From: wilkins@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Mark Wilkins)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Windows/Mac flame war fuel
Message-ID: <7729@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
Date: 4 Jul 90 23:37:41 GMT
References: <8974@goofy.Apple.COM> <2988@gmdzi.UUCP>
Organization: Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711
Lines: 14

In article <2988@gmdzi.UUCP> strobl@gmdzi.UUCP (Wolfgang Strobl) writes:
>This either implies that the printer driver can query the printer about
>the resources (memory, fonts, resolution, paper size, ...) it has 
>available - which is not possible on monodirectional links -, or it
>restricts the printer driver to worst case asumptions.

  Actually, printers on the Mac are connected to a serial port which is
bidirectional.  If the printer is out of paper, for example, the Mac itself
alerts the user that the printer is not ready to print and that perhaps
paper has not been loaded.

  Are one-way printer connections the norm in the MS-DOS world?

-- Mark Wilkins