Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!uwmcsd1!ig!agate!ucbvax!cbosgd!ihnp4!ihlpf!straka
From: straka@ihlpf.ATT.COM (Straka)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Need a good ImageWriter Spooler
Message-ID: <3463@ihlpf.ATT.COM>
Date: 21 Jan 88 14:34:19 GMT
References: <1560033@acf8.UUCP>
Reply-To: straka@ihlpf.UUCP (55223-Straka,R.J.)
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 47

In article <1560033@acf8.UUCP> perkins@acf8.UUCP (Mark E. Perkins) writes:
>
>    Has anyone had any (good) experience with ImageWriter spoolers?
>Configuration is a 512E w/ 2MB (Dove).  MacSpool (Mainstay) is OK,
>
>    Can anyone tell me anything about the spooler from SuperMac?
>Judging from the enthusiasm about DiskFit, my guess would be that
>stuff from SuperMac is pretty solid, no?

The quality of the SuperMac Spooler (SuperSpool) is definitely not on the par
with DiskFit.  SuperSpool works, but I'm not terribly impressed.  Running
5.5/4.1 (no MF in this case), it does the basic job, but has its share of
bugs and idiosyncrasies.  Note: I have an IW I, not IW II.

For example:
1) sometimes bombs when returning to the finder while in the process of
printing,

2) making every page a separate logical print job (a real pain to cancel the
rest of a 10  or more page job that gets messed up), 

3) difficult (impossible) to cancel the currently printing page

4) you have to make it your startup application (or at least run it before it
gets loaded)  After that, you use the DA to access it.

5) if you do anything on the Mac, the IW comes to a screeching halt until you
don't touch anything for ~ 5 seconds.  This can make you want to leave the
room while things are printing because it's rather disturbing.

6) draft mode is changed.  It's now like "middle" mode, but bi-directional
instead of uni-directional printing.  Leaves your printouts looking slightly
odd due to timing shifts of the printhead (at least on my IW).

On The other hand...

It can be deinstalled/reinstalled at a click of a button with the DA.

Comes free with a DataFrame disk as part of the utilities package.


Summary: It may be better than most (or all) of the other IW spoolers out
there, but I'm NOT impressed.  It's certainly not worth spending much money on.
-- 
Rich Straka     ihnp4!ihlpf!straka

Advice for the day: "MSDOS - just say no."