Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!bu.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!apple!bionet!arisia!roo!janssen From: janssen@parc.xerox.com (Bill Janssen) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x Subject: Re: printing at X terminals Message-ID: Date: 18 Jul 90 06:10:02 GMT References: <9007161432.AA02724@smithkline.com> Sender: news@parc.xerox.com Organization: Xerox PARC, Palo Alto, CA Lines: 31 In-reply-to: wood%lavc3.dnet@SMITHKLINE.COM's message of 16 Jul 90 14:32:26 GMT In article <9007161432.AA02724@smithkline.com> Bill Wood writes: Because local printing is something you do through your terminal connection. Always has been. Look, Bill, I worked for years on a VT241 with an attached dot-matrix printer. I know what you're talking about. I understand the convenience and the model. But it really is an ad-hoc kind of thing. The 'right' thing to do is to put an Ethernet board in the printer, and hook it up on to the Ethernet right next to the X terminal. Or if the X terminal is on a serial line, run another one to the printer. Now, if we're really talking about 'local' printing, I have no trouble with putting a key on the X terminal that causes the printer to print the current screen display. Actually, if you really wanted to get ugly... Make the printer look like a built-in client to the X terminal. Have a printing program on the host that exchanges data with the printer "client" via a property on the root window of the X terminal. This way the printer can get its data via the standard X protocol, without problems. And the X terminal vendors can fight about the right way to implement the solution. Bill -- Bill Janssen janssen@parc.xerox.com (415) 494-4763 Xerox Palo Alto Research Center 3333 Coyote Hill Road, Palo Alto, California 94304