Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utgpu!tj
From: tj@utgpu.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: WordPerfect and Apple LaserWriter
Message-ID: <1987Oct11.093231.28258@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu>
Date: Sun, 11-Oct-87 09:32:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: gpu.1987Oct11.093231.28258
Posted: Sun Oct 11 09:32:31 1987
Date-Received: Mon, 12-Oct-87 20:41:22 EDT
References: <497@leah.Albany.Edu> <206900084@prism>
Reply-To: tj@gpu.utcs.UUCP (Terry Jones)
Organization: University of Toronto Computing Services
Lines: 68
Checksum: 39763

Re: WordPerfect and LaserWriter

First the simple stuff... If you want times or helvetica with the
TI printer then tell WordPerfect you have an Apple LaserWriter
Times or Helvetica (this is what it says in the PRHELP program
that comes on the WordPerfect disk...)

Second, the tough stuff... You can make all the changes you want to 
the stupid wordperfect pscript.ps and it won't work well across the network
printers. It is the use of control characters and 8 bit characters
that will choke you. This was just blatant laziness on the part of
WordPerfect in writing their driver. You need to rewrite a driver
that uses the proper \xxx notation for 8 bit extended characters and
new valuse for the function commands so that the control characters
aren't in there. I wrote a 3 page letter to WordPerfect which they lost.
I sent it again along with another two pages of newer problems. I called
and they have "passed it on to testing and future suggestions section"
and the person that was handling it hasn't even had the courteosy to
call me back in spite of three calls to her.

Last week I did some performance testing to see how fast the thing
(WordPerfect is the "thing") prints on a direct connected QMS printer.
We were getting 2 pages a minute. I thought it was because we were using
a slow PC and WordPerfect wasn't sending data fast enough. I switched to
a 386 Zenith and got (you guessed it) 2 pages a minute. The WordPerfect Post-
Script code isn't even efficient!!!!

We are just trying to decide what we can do here at University of Toronto
with all the people that want to print on the LaserWriter from WordPerfect.
There is no denying that it is a popular program and that it does a lot
of things well, but it takes so much handholding to get a good document
out on a PostScript printer that it isn't worth it. We charge for time
as well as pages here and it takes them so long it is ridiculous and
really expensive. With the last experience I had I am ready to suggest
that we can no longer offer assistance to WordPerfect users on PostScript
printers because it takes too much staff time to assist them. 50 %
is due to people not understanding how to use a proportional space
printer, the other half is due to the programs poor support for
proportional space printers and their particularly bad support
for the PostScript printers.

You mentioned Word as a solution? Well, to start off with they look better
and really are, but as for network stuff there are some of the same problems.
They also do not follow the Adobe comment conventions (magic number you call
it) so there is no %! in the first line. They have a ^D at the beginning
and this causes grief. They make their stuff stay permanent which I hate
so you have to remove the serverdict begin 0 exitserver line and the
^D at the end and the if msdict known else stop stuff. Also deeper in the
code (this is all in applaser and appland ini files) there is a
currentfile closefile
this is a really good way to end things except it sends a ^D which
confuses the hell out of transcript code (really the problem here is poor
Adobe transcript code!) Nuke the currentfile closefile.

Also, this initialization code isn't prepended each time you print so you need
it to stay resident (but I don't want it resident!!!) but you could probably
change the prd file to prepend it every time (someone stole our Word printer
book or I would tell you how... piss me off.)

Like in general micro users are the most inconsiderate lazy developers
I have ever seen with no regard for the published rules and they take
as many short cuts as it takes to get a product (no matter how shoddy)
to market!!!

Sorry this was so long. I have this really naive idea that some of these
developers might actually be listening and even more exciting, maybe they
will do something!!!!!!!
tj