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Path: utzoo!utcs!wagner
From: wagner@utcs.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Modem, Astartup.obj, Copyright questions(actually, Amiga printing)
Message-ID: <1986Dec8.090150.8783@utcs.uucp>
Date: Mon, 8-Dec-86 09:01:50 EST
Article-I.D.: utcs.1986Dec8.090150.8783
Posted: Mon Dec  8 09:01:50 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 8-Dec-86 09:31:44 EST
References: <1710@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Reply-To: wagner@utcs.UUCP (Michael Wagner)
Organization: University of Toronto Computing Services, general purpose UNIX
Lines: 25
Checksum: 15332


Dan Green brings up some good points about printing on the Amiga.
He gave them in the context of NOTEPAD, but, in fact, they are problems
with Amiga printing in general.  Raster map printing seems to take forever,
and there seems to be little one can do about speeding it up.  The print drivers
all seem to output long strings of blank rasters.  I'm writing a program to 
rasterize the output from Aegis Draw (I know, they did it themselves already),
and I've spec-ed out the section which compresses blank sections of output.
It's not that hard.  Maybe a good suggestion for v1.3?  

Another thing that would speed up the printer would be support for spooling
within the driver.  That is, have the printer.device accept data and buffer 
it (in ram or disk or some combination according to a flag in preferences).

And now a suggestion for a function enhancement (as opposed to a performance
enhancement).  It would be nice if there were another level of talking to the
printer.device besides the text and bitmap levels.  I would like to be able
to specify graphics (and 'fonted' text) and let the printer rasterize it at
the resolution of the printer.  The calls should be identical to the calls 
for the screen.  Then, an application could write on the screen by issuing a 
set of calls; switch it's attention to the printer, issue the same calls and
get the better resolution of, say, a laser printer.  Another suggestion for
1.3, perhaps?

Michael