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From: earleh@dartvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Using a non-ImageWriter printer with a Mac (How's it done?)
Message-ID: <6014@dartvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 15-Apr-87 15:50:31 EST
Article-I.D.: dartvax.6014
Posted: Wed Apr 15 15:50:31 1987
Date-Received: Fri, 17-Apr-87 06:22:11 EST
References: <1999@k.cc.purdue.edu>
Organization: Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Graduate Students
Lines: 39
Summary: Depends on what you want

In article <1999@k.cc.purdue.edu>, jao@k.cc.purdue.edu.UUCP writes:  
>Question:  How easy is it to use a non-ImageWriter printer to a Macintosh?  
...
>I'm wondering how well the Mac TALKS > to non-Apple printers.  

The answer to this question depends entirely on what you want.  The
Mac has a decent set of serial drivers, so that any program that knows
how to send ASCII codes out a serial port can probably work with a
standard serial printer.  If you want draft quality output, then there
are a number or programs that can be made to work with almost any
printer.  I have a Tandy printer, and I began printing from the Mac
with Microsoft Basic 1.0.  Then I wrote a desk accessory in TML Pascal
to do the job, and finally got smart, ported a real text editor to the
Mac, and made it capable of printing its buffers to either serial
port.  I included choice of baud rate and serial port, plus choice of
line-terminator character.

If you want to print a MacPaint document, or even a MacWrite document
in "draft" mode, then we begin to enter the twilight zone.  Programs
that are written according to the "Macintosh User Interface
Guidelines" (I would put this phrase in bold, shadowed, italic, but I
can't.)  never talk to the serial port directly, but rather use a
printer driver as an intermediary.  Printer drivers for standard
printers cost from $100 to $400, and are well worth it, considering
the complexity of the code involved.  Basically, the poor programmer
has to rewrite QuickDraw, the Macintosh graphics package, for each
printer supported by the printer driver.  In addition, the information
needed to do this has been removed from the new editions of Inside
Macintosh, according to report (I still use the "Phone Book").  Also,
the only way to test a printer driver is to drag your cable, printer, etc.
to the dealer's office (assuming he is nice enough to allow this sort of
thing) hook it up, and actually print something.  It's not like a program,
where you just go in, borrow the demo copy, and slip the disk into one
of the demo machines for a five minute "test drive" of the program.
There are a lot more logistics involved in finding out whether a printer
driver will actually work for your printer than there are in finding
out if you "like" a word processor.

WYSIWYG, but you have to pay, first.