Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!nrl-cmf!cmcl2!esquire!sbb
From: sbb@esquire.UUCP (Stephen B. Baumgarten)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Apple Printer Drivers (Was:Microsoft cuts corners, actuall
Message-ID: <591@esquire.UUCP>
Date: 27 Aug 88 19:03:59 GMT
References: <77.23156CF6@mailcom.UUCP> <2943@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>
Reply-To: sbb@esquire.UUCP (Stephen B. Baumgarten)
Distribution: na
Organization: DP&W, New York, NY
Lines: 25

In article <2943@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> u545731798ea@deneb.ucdavis.edu.UUCP (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
>
>Of course, device independent printing is the ideal, as I am sure Apple is 
>aware and working on.  But until that day, I'll stick with Apple printers
>and Apple drivers.

But it is interesting that Apple was able to provide a good measure of 
video display independence (i.e., any correctly written Mac application
should be able to run unmodified on any size/resolution monitor, or even
multiple monitors).  MS-DOS programs usually also have to include a disk
or 2 of drivers for various different video displays, and a program that
provides support for more than a handful of different displays is the 
exception, rather than the rule.

-- 
   Steve Baumgarten             | "New York... when civilization falls apart,
   Davis Polk & Wardwell        |  remember, we were way ahead of you."
   {uunet,cmcl2}!esquire!sbb    | 
   sbb%esquire@cmcl2.nyu.edu    |                           - David Letterman