Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!apple!casseres
From: casseres@Apple.COM (David Casseres)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Macintosh and Printers
Message-ID: <18536@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 10 Oct 88 18:13:21 GMT
References: <15098@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 45

In article <15098@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> steve@violet.berkeley.edu (Steve Goldfield) writes:

>... I've found that the most general way to write
>such a program to print on continuous labels is to set the
>form length to the length of the label and eject after each
>label. I have a LaserWriter but purchased an LQ specifically
>to print continuous labels.

It sounds to me as if you're trying to port a non-Macintosh program to the
Mac, without having learned much about the software architecture of the
Mac.   You get points for bravery but I'm not surprised that you're getting
some big surprises.

>The Problem
>
>... I've been informed that the Macintosh
>system prevents me as a user from controlling the printer,
>that the printer can only be controlled through its driver,
>and that to do what I want I'd have to write a custom driver,
>which is an extremely demanding project.
>
>I managed to rewrite my label program to get around the
>form-length problem (though I still can't control print
>quality through software commands). But I would still like
>to know why Apple chose to implement the Macintosh system
>in such a way as to prevent the user from making optimal
>use of her/his equipment.

The bad news is that label printing is a very specialized application, and
the existing architecture for printing just doesn't handle it very well.  To
make printing work the way you would like it to would mean a reimplementation
of all of Apple's drivers, and Apple hasn't considered that a high enough
priority.

The good news, though you may not like it much, is that the way printing
works on a Mac DOES make optimal use of the equipment for a very large and
important class of applications, namely the ones that print documents in the
form of pages.  The printing architecture is what supports the WYSIWYG
paradigm that is central to the Mac's design.  It isn't that Apple said
"let's screw the label-printing applications," it's label printing was not
as important as WYSIWYG page images and there were some conflicts between
the two.  The problem could be solved, but so far, as I've said, it hasn't
been a high priority.

David Casseres