Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!apple!radius!lemke
From: lemke@radius.com (Steve Lemke)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: FKEY to change LaserWriters??
Message-ID: <1327@radius.com>
Date: 6 Sep 90 17:43:25 GMT
Reply-To: lemke@radius.com
Organization: Radius Inc., San Jose, CA
Lines: 32

Here's an interesting idea for a little FKEY:

How about one that would go and change whatever resource needs to be changed
to switch to a different LaserWriter (possibly in a different zone) and also
optionally turn background printing on or off??

Depending on what I'm printing (and where I'm headed if I'm on my way out of
the immediate area around my office), I often change printers, and sometimes
turn background printing off.  For normal printing, I use background printing
on and print to the printer around the corner from my office.

It seems to me that an FKEY could be written such that if you hit the FKEY,
the appropriate resources are changed and you're all set to print to the
newly selected printer.  How do you set what printer the FKEY works with?
How about this:  If you invoke the FKEY with the CAPS Lock down (on), then
it will read the current settings into that FKEY.  So, ideally, we have two
or three FKEYs (possibly re-mapped to function keys on an extended keyboard
with something like QuickKeys), each of which will select a different printer
with or without background printing on.

If I had the time, I'd try to write this myself, but having neither the time
or the experience writing an FKEY, I leave it as an excercise to whomever
might find it a challenge.  If undecided as to what language, I think it
would be great if you used THINK Pascal (3.0) and release the source as well
as the FKEYs (at least that way I could tinker with it if I wanted to).

Anyone interested?

--Steve
-- 
----- Steve Lemke, Engineering Quality Assurance, Radius Inc., San Jose -----
----- Reply to: lemke@radius.com     (Note: NEW domain-style address!!) -----