Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!mcnc!ecsvax!kms
From: kms@ecsvax.UUCP (Ken Steele)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: 1.4 wish list-Printer Support
Keywords: Printer Driver maker/patcher needed
Message-ID: <6984@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: 12 May 89 01:49:51 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: UNC Educational Computing Service
Lines: 38




My wish for 1.4 (and 1.3 and 1.2) is for C-A to provide a utility 
that will allow the user to create his/her own printer driver.

The problem is that printers (particularly dot matrix) are constantly
being changed/modified/tweaked by the manufacturers.  The current
method by C-A for providing drivers often means that if you don't
have an official driver then you are plagued by missing or incorrect
commands and are, otherwise, generally out of luck.

For example, I have an Okidata 192 (IBM version).  This is not a rare
printer.  But I have been unable to find a driver that supports all its
features AND doesn't attempt unrecognized features.

When I write, I produce 50-page documents which need to follow
rather specific page-formatting rules.  Because I have to use
whatever printer is available, this means that I have had to stick with
the IBM for such work because on it each piece of software provides drivers 
(and periodic updates to incorporate new printers).

I follow the reasoning of C-A's approach to driver issues, and have
no quarrel about that.  However the approach means that C-A needs to 
provide some easier mechanism, than having to write your own printer
driver, to allow incorporation of the wide variety of printers.

One suggestion:  Since so many of the printer command sets are variations
of a few basic themes, then perhaps a few skeleton drivers could be 
provided along with a patching program for specific user needs. Such
drivers may not be as powerful/efficient as a from-scratch driver but
would allow the user to "get by."


-- 
Ken Steele   Dept. of Psychology    kms@ecsvax.[bitnet | UUCP]
             Mars Hill College
             Mars Hill, NC 28754