Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!mcnc!ecsvax!kms
From: kms@ecsvax.UUCP (Ken Steele)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: 1.4 wish list-Printer Support
Summary: printer driver maker still needed!
Keywords: Printer Driver maker/patcher needed
Message-ID: <6996@ecsvax.UUCP>
Date: 13 May 89 03:49:48 GMT
References: <6984@ecsvax.UUCP> <6850@cbmvax.UUCP>
Distribution: usa
Organization: UNC Educational Computing Service
Lines: 72

In article <6850@cbmvax.UUCP>, daveb@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Berezowski) writes:
> In article <6984@ecsvax.UUCP> kms@ecsvax.UUCP (Ken Steele) writes:
> >
> >
> >
> >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.
> >
> >
> >
> 	A printer driver generator can be written to support the text mode
> of a printer (in fact there is such a beast called PrtDrvGen on one of the
> Fish disks although the number escapes me at present).  This program was
> written to the V1.2 printer driver standard; I had hoped that the author
> would upgrade it to the V1.3 standard.  You should be able to use this
> tool to modify your Okidata_293I driver.
> 

I did use PDG.  It was written in Modula-2 by a Danish CS student,
and so I was forced to consult RKM and make translation/guesses
at a foreign CS student's attempts to describe something in
English.  This is not the way you encourage people to rush out
and buy hardware.

> 	A printer driver generator for the graphics side is much more
> difficult if not near impossible.  Each different printer has so many
> quirks when it comes to the graphics side that the possibilities are
> almost endless.  I know that an 8-pin non-color graphics generator is
> possible (I've seen it, but not for the Amiga), but it is very limited
> in its scope.
> 

And this is where I gave up with PDG.  I couldn't tell whether I
had missed something because of his unfamiliarity with English,
my unfamiliarity with CS-dept terminology, or my unfamiliarty
with Modula-2, or whatever.

> 	Commodore-Amiga makes available a document on how to write your
> own printer driver along with sample source code.  Contact our CATS dept.
> at (215) 431-9180 for more info (I believe that you need to be either a
> certified or commercial developer to get this, but I'm not sure).
> 

Gosh (faint hearts tread no further :-)) David this is where I
lose my cookies.  I have an epson-of-the-week.  The official
approach of CBM is to say (both to developers and users) that
CBM provides drivers (in /devs).  But, in practice, there seems
to be no stated decision rule for either what should or
should not be supported.  In practice, there is no official
policy for updating/enlarging the printer driver selection
(with the exception of new OS versions).  New OS versions appear
every 1.3 years or so, but printers change at a faster rate.


And the upshot is that, if I am a registered developer, I
might get a code-example to write a driver.  And CBM expects
to lure in John Q. Blue and John Q. Apple with the promise
of the thrill of writing a printer driver!!!! (faint hearts
take a sip of chamomille tea, it is all over, wheww :-))


> 	Good luck.
> 
> 	Regards, David Berezowski


Thanks for the reply

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