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From: earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: System 7.0 Q & A
Message-ID: <13436@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 11 May 89 03:53:13 GMT
Sender: news@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU
Reply-To: earleh@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Earle R. Horton)
Organization: Thayer School of Engineering
Lines: 27

>Q:  Is it true that all of the current printer drivers will
>    be incompatible with System 7.0?
>A:  Yes.  Apple's New Print Architecture is designed to
>    make the creation of printer drivers easy.
>
     The present generation Print Manager has only one problem
regarding the creation of printer drivers:  You can't get documentation
unless you have the Promotional Edition of Inside Macintosh.  Does
this mean that IM VI will have a chapter on "Creating a Printer Driver
for your non-Apple Printer?"

>    When System 7.0 ships, Apple will have new printer
>    drivers to support all Apple output devices.
>
>Q:  Who will write replacement drivers for these devices?
>A:  Apple will work closely with third-party developers to
>    help in the creation of new printer drivers built around Apple's
>    New Print Architecture.

     Which third-party developers?  Is this going to be public
information, or will you have to be someone special to get it?  Does
this actually mean that Apple is turning over a new leaf in its policy
of printer driver documentation?  I would like to believe so, but
recent history causes me to be skeptical.
Earle R. Horton

Graduate Student.  Programmer.  God to my cats.