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From: jww@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU (Joel West)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Cheap LW without PS?
Message-ID: <3368@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU>
Date: Thu, 25-Jun-87 22:35:59 EDT
Article-I.D.: sdcsvax.3368
Posted: Thu Jun 25 22:35:59 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 27-Jun-87 04:53:14 EDT
References: <1604@tekig4.TEK.COM>
Organization: Western Software Technology, Vista, CA
Lines: 34
Keywords: Apple LaserWriter PostScript

First, let me say I have no inside information, only three years of
experience as a Mac owner speculating on Apple's plans. :-)

Clearly the new printer has to have decent fonts or it's out of the
question.  As long as fonts can be referenced symbolically
(rather than just as bitmaps), I don't think it really matters whether a
laserprinter has PS or not -- it's a separate issue.

Speculation is that PS adds $300-$500 to the cost of a LaserWriter.
Apple contributed 56% of Adobe's revenue in the last quarter.
Apple designed a pretty good graphics system -- QuickDraw -- that
only seemed feeble when PostScript came along and obsoleted
just about everything.  From a technical standpoint, there's no
reason why the five-year-old QuickDraw couldn't be updated to
fix a few small problems and make a laserprinter nearly as good--
without the license.

I think those (like Cricket) who assume that PostScript-only
is the wave of the future are likely to be drown.  Apple has
promised (and the current software guarantees) that QuickDraw
will always be with us, but has never said anything of the sort
for PostScript.

Also, Apple is a very proud company that likes to innovate: I was 
reminded of this looking at the Din-8 connectors, Din-3 (for AppleTalk), 
ADB and the cabling for the Mac II monitors.  Given a choice between
a slightly problematic PostScript and the opportunity to have a
new, improved Apple-defined QuickDraw, I would bet on Apple
spending the time to fix up QuickDraw.

Who knows?  Perhaps they've done it already and not told anyone... :=)
-- 
	Joel West
	{ucbvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww or jww@sdcsvax.ucsd.edu