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From: merchant@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Peter Merchant)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Apple Printer Drivers (Was:Microsoft cuts corners, actuall
Message-ID: <9942@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 27 Aug 88 19:54:24 GMT
References: <77.23156CF6@mailcom.UUCP> <2943@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
Sender: news@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU
Reply-To: Peter.G.Merchant@dartmouth.edu (Peter Merchant)
Organization: U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Kings Point, NY
Lines: 26

In article <2943@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> L. Greg DeMichillie writes:
>Printer drivers are the biggest hassle in the MS-DOS world.  Each application
>comes on 6 disks, one for the program and 5 to support every god-awful printer
>ever built.  And you can be damn sure that when Epson upgrades their printers
>that you will need new and improved drivers to take advantage of their featuers.
>
>My response: LET MS-DOS KEEP THE TROUBLE

Every MS-DOS software package has to do this because there are lots of
printers out there and that MS-DOS does not provide any form of device
independent printing.

What I want is to be able to buy an Epson FX-286, call up Epson, and for an
extra $8 or so they send me a printer driver for my Macintosh.  I get the
disk, copy the file into my system folder, and I'm golden.

What I'm seeing is a replay of the MS-DOS world.  Apple doesn't support
other people's printers, the printer manufacturers have no wish to invest the
time and effort figuring and refiguring how to support Apple computers, so
developers (like Claris or Cricket) have to write support drivers for every
known printer and ship them with their products.  So you buy MacDraw II and
end up with (n) other disks to support other printers.
---
"Where everything was as fresh         Peter Merchant (merchant@eleazar.UUCP)
 as a bright blue sky..."                    (merchant@eleazar.dartmouth.edu)
                                             (Peter.G.Merchant@dartmouth.edu)