Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!dgold
From: dgold@Apple.COM (David Goldsmith)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Apple Printer Drivers (Was:Microsoft cuts corners, actuall
Message-ID: <16341@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 30 Aug 88 16:59:15 GMT
References: <2943@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> <474@poseidon.UUCP>
Reply-To: dgold@apple.com.UUCP (David Goldsmith)
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 35

In article <474@poseidon.UUCP> ech@poseidon.UUCP (Edward C Horvath) writes:
>The simple fact is that printer drivers are a black art, a jealously-guarded
>secret (even WITHIN Apple, from the rumors I've heard).  There's no excuse
>for keeping this information under wraps for over four years.
>
>But then, there is certainly no pressure within Apple to actually document
>and publish the printer driver interface: why on earth would they want to
>make it easy to break their near-monopoly on Mac printers?  Recognize that
>Apple are (rightly) interested in supporting only those developers who are
>going to facilitate sales of APPLE's products.  They get no bucks, nor warm
>fuzzies, from sales of other devices, so you have to somehow convince them
>that Calcomp support is a gating factor on some number of Mac sales.  Do that,
>and you'll get action.
>
>=Ned Horvath=

I must take issue with this.  Apple certainly does derive revenue if we sell
a Macintosh to someone who would not have bought one otherwise if it could
not drive a favorite output device.

I won't attempt to explain why Mac has gone so long without a supported way
of third parties writing print drivers, but I can assure you it's not from
some Machiavellian attempt to monopolize the printer market.  There are
many knotty technical issues in writing print drivers (you're quite right
to call it a black art), and we'd like to resolve some of them before
there are fifty print drivers on the market and our hands are tied.  We
are interested in and are actively working on this problem.

Suffice it to say that the internals of the printing architecture are not
up to the standards we require in order to support external developers.

David Goldsmith                                           Apple Computer, Inc.
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