Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!usc!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!newstop!sun!amdahl!dwl10
From: dwl10@uts.amdahl.com (Dave Lowrey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: printer.device
Message-ID: <e3wa02.q86hb01@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>
Date: 8 Feb 90 15:46:59 GMT
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Houston TX
Lines: 50

I have been working with a printer driver for the last month or so,
and have come up with a few questions/concerns about how printer.device
interfaces with a printer driver.....

 1) When Preferences has been changed, printer.device (I assume) will
    cause an "aRIS" (initialize) escape sequence to be sent to the
    driver when the next file is printed. This allows the driver to
    set up the printer for possible changes in fonts, lpi, forms, etc.

    However, that is the ONLY time that printer.device will send this.
    If the user powers off his printer, the printer usually looses
    any type of setup info that was sent to it.

    I would like to be able to force printer.device to send that "aRIS"
    command every time the printer is opened for text output. I could
    do it in either the _Open routine or the Render() case 5 (Pre-
    Master Initialization). The problem is that I don't know what
    printer.device is looking at to determine that preferences has
    changed.

    Any ideas??? Could someone at CBM look at the printer.device
    code for me and let me know? Can this be fixed in 1.4?

2 - The _Expunge routine is called when (guess what?) the driver
    is expunged during a memory shortage.

    It is NOT called if you load a new driver. I feel that it should
    be called before a new driver is loaded, so that any cleanup
    memory freeing, etc. could be done. As it is now, the libraries
    opened by the Init() routine never get closed when a new driver
    is loaded.

3 - A word of warning. Quite by accident, I have discovered how
    "Cmd" manages to re-direct the printer output to a file. It
    hooks it'self into the pointer to the ConvFunc() routine in
    the PED. It the user's driver HAD a ConvFunc() routine, it will
    never get called.

    "Cmd" should be changed so that IF a ConvFunc() routine already
    exists, "Cmd" should call it before sending the character(s) to
    the file.

Nuff for now, I guess.

Any insight into my problems would be greatly appreciated.
-- 
"What is another word  |  Dave Lowrey    | [The opinions expressed MAY be
 for 'Thesaurus'?"     |  Amdahl Corp.   | those of the author and are not
                       |  Houston, Texas | necessarily those of his
   Steven Wright       |  amdahl!dwl10   | employer]   (`nuff said!)