Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cwjcc!mandrill!decvax!dartvax!eleazar.dartmouth.edu!earleh
From: earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Apple Printer Drivers (Was:Microsoft cuts corners, actuall
Message-ID: <9966@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 31 Aug 88 03:29:03 GMT
References: <2943@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu> <474@poseidon.UUCP> <16341@apple.Apple.COM>
Sender: news@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU
Reply-To: earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton)
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Lines: 45

In article <16341@apple.Apple.COM> dgold@apple.com.UUCP 
		(David Goldsmith) writes:
>...
>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...
>
>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.
>

I find this to be highly commendable in the abstract.  However, the
Macintosh is by this time considered by many to be a "mature product"
line of computers.  This implies to me that a well defined interface
to printing is long overdue.  Just about everyone who has a Mac has a
printer or the need for one.  Look at the most popular types of
programs which are sold for personal computers: Word Processors,
Spreadsheets, Accounting Packages, things to balance your checkbook.
Printing is important!!!

I find it outlandish in the extreme to hear from the manufacturer of a
mature product in the personal computer industry that "The exact
method of implementing printing on our machines is undocumented."  I
find it equally amazing that many, many businesses and high volume
printing users have consulted me regarding the use of my example
printer driver, Daisy, to drive their machines.  The feedback I
receive later indicates that many of them actually do use it in high
volume, high speed applications.  There is something wrong here when
commercial users have to rely on an example program from MacTutor
Magazine for a vital function like printing.  Nothing wrong with
MacTutor, I just don't in general consider it to be a source for high
performance business software.

We're getting awfully close to "fifty print drivers" even as you read
this.  There may not be time to resolve some of the issues before this
happens.  Apple should either document what they have now, and reserve
the right to implement "Version 2 Printing" later, or they should get
on the stick and fix the printing code real soon.  The present level
of uncertainty in this area is not real helpful to users, peripheral
manufacturers, developers, or anybody, I think.

Earle R. Horton. 23 Fletcher Circle, Hanover, NH 03755
(603) 643-4109
Email address expires soon, but try my wife: maxine@eleazar.dartmouth.edu.