Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!purdue!haven!mimsy!mojo!russotto
From: russotto@eng.umd.edu (Matthew T. Russotto)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Windows/Mac flame war fuel
Message-ID: <1990Jul5.170915.25411@eng.umd.edu>
Date: 5 Jul 90 17:09:15 GMT
References: <2988@gmdzi.UUCP> <7729@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> <3040@gmdzi.UUCP>
Sender: news@eng.umd.edu (The News System)
Organization: College of Engineering, Maryversity of Uniland, College Park
Lines: 29

In article <3040@gmdzi.UUCP> strobl@gmdzi.UUCP (Wolfgang Strobl) writes:

>So this interface can do what you gave as examples of a bidirectional
>link, too. But it is not possible for a printer to report things
>like "I don't have font yxz" or "I have the following fonts installed"
>back to the computer.
>
>Let me restate my question. Does a Macintosh printer driver query 
>the printer about such things, i.e. what font cartriges are installed,
>whether the paper is in to upper or in the lower reservoir, how much
>memory it has installed, which paper size is loaded ...?
>
>If not, how does a printer driver get this information, if there
>is no configuration necessary?

This depends on the printer-- on printers with sufficient "intelligence",
such as most PostScript printers, a driver will be able to query the
printer about such things.
On "dumb" printers like the Apple Imagewriter, the user is able
to configure the driver using the standard "Page Setup" command.  In addition,
user-controllable options on all printers are controlled through this command.

As for speed, most fast printers go through either AppleTalk or
SCSI.  Slow printers like the Imagewriter usually can't keep up with serial
data in graphics mode anyway.
--
Matthew T. Russotto	russotto@eng.umd.edu	russotto@wam.umd.edu
][, ][+, ///, ///+, //e, //c, IIGS, //c+ --- Any questions?
		Hey!  Bush has NO LIPS!