Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!sun-barr!lll-winken!uunet!uarthur!rpcfod From: rpcfod@uarthur.UUCP (Robert Patt-Corner) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.comm Subject: Re: Pass Through Printing (was Re: MacTerminal 3.0) Summary: Spool'Print hits the 95 per cent Message-ID: <25@uarthur.UUCP> Date: 1 Nov 90 16:39:52 GMT References: <24@uarthur.UUCP> <11039@goofy.Apple.COM> Lines: 50 In article , amanda@visix.com (Amanda Walker) writes: > > 1. Forget the print manager. > ... > > 2. Spool the and print it all at once. > > This is a compromise. Many applications do local printing by putting > the terminal into printer mode, sending a bunch of data, and then > taking the terminal back out of printer mode. This can be supported > fairly well by buffering the data until printer mode is turned off, > and then opening a print sesssion and drawing pages. This way, you can > use any Mac printer, but you are constrained to applications that print > entire documents in a single burst. > > Once again, though, within its constraints, this method works great. > > These two methods are easy to implement, but each only address a piece of > the overall problem. The general solution is the hardest: > > 3. Guess what the user wants and Do The Right Thing. > > ... > This is what Apple "should" do, but i certainly don't envy them the job. But the immediate issue isn't so much implementing a general purpose all flavors printing subsystem as implementing a specific and well-defined characteristic of a single (well OK, two) terminal emulator - the Digital VT320. Solution two should do a very nice job it seems to me ... the "PRINTER ON" and "PRINTER OFF" escape sequences define very precisely where the page to be printed begins and ends. Granted, there are other DIGITAL(tm?) print sequences that could be included (I think there's one for print the screen, print to a specific screen position, etc.), good old TURN ON, PRINT, TURN OFF covers the 98 per cent of cases I've seen. And that's worth doing. I appreciate the concerns for general print everything solutions, but meantime, what we've got is mark and print. It might be effective to avoid an over-engineered solution in favor of a more readily available but legal solution that makes most people happy most of the time. Naturally I don't think solution 1 -- breaking the rules -- should be done at all by anybody. I guess if I were wearing my developer's hat I might feel differently, but with my site manager hat on, this seems clear ............. On a clear day ... you can see the sky!