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From: urlichs@smurf.sub.org (Matthias Urlichs)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.comm
Subject: Re: Pass Through Printing (was Re: MacTerminal 3.0)
Message-ID: <-4x2g2.388@smurf.sub.org>
Date: 1 Nov 90 23:27:43 GMT
References: <11039@goofy.Apple.COM> <1990Oct31.012421.12492@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <ts351ddcfa@visix.com>
Organization: University of Karlsruhe, FRG
Lines: 42

In comp.sys.mac.comm, article <ts351ddcfa@visix.com>,
  amanda@visix.com (Amanda Walker) writes:

< Part of the problem here is that pass-through printing in a Mac terminal
< emulator is very hard to do right, and even fairly hard to do at all.
< [...]
< 
< On a terminal or PC, a printer is just another device you can send bytes to.
< On a Macintosh, a printer is just another place you can draw.
< 
Guess what your VTxxx emulator does?
Right -- it translates bytes into pictures.

< 1. Forget the print manager.
< 2. Spool the and print it all at once.
< 3. Guess what the user wants and Do The Right Thing.
< 
So? What you're already doing is emulate a VTxxx (or whatever) into a
grafport, which happens to be a window.

Would it be that much harder to emulate a FX80?
Emulating a LaserJet would probably be overkill, but while you're at it... ;-)

<    This involves guessing when documents start and stop, and then printing
<    them using method (2) above.  This is a hard problem.  [...]

Forgive me if I'm a bit naive here, but wouldn't a customizable timeout and a
menu command and/or alert "print current page now" be sufficient?

Or better still, you could probably make a "FX80" terminal which doesn't
accept keyboard input, but which defaults to printing each page as it's
finished.
(Don't forget the form feed button. Printers have those too, you know. ;-)

Then all you have to do is to make your terminal tool hand off the stuff
that's destined for the "printer" to just another terminal tool.

Anything wrong with this idea?

-- 
Matthias Urlichs -- urlichs@smurf.sub.org -- urlichs@smurf.ira.uka.de     /(o\
Humboldtstrasse 7 - 7500 Karlsruhe 1 - FRG -- +49+721+621127(0700-2330)   \o)/