rob@aeras.uucp (Rob Rogers) (04/19/91)
Has anybody gotten MacOberon to print properly? Whenever I print something,
(Leda.Print Pluto *, Write.Print Pluto *, or Edit.Print Pluto *)
the words have no spaces between them (sometimes negative space), and
text runs off the top and bottom of the page.
Everything looks fine on the screen.
Those are the only print commands I could find in the docs ( I can't even
print them to read how to use it). Does "Pluto" tell it what kind of
printer to use, or is it just the name of the printer that was hooked up
to the Mac they were porting the system on?
I really like the editors included in the package, but what's the use
if I can't print anything?
On another note: Is there a way to use different directories? That seems
pretty bad, seeing how it uses lots of modules, making a bunch of little files.
It would be nice to have a "tools" directory, a "text" directoty, etc.
Please let me know. I really like the system, but if this is it, I can't
use it.
Thanks
--
Rob Rogers
Art Director, ARIX Computer Corporation
{mips|sun|wyse|jade}!aeras!rob <> rob@aeras.UUCP <>
73377.1017@compuserve.com <> GEnie=R.ROGERS10 <> AOL=MacGunmfranz@bernina.ethz.ch (Michael Franz) (04/23/91)
As the author of MacOberon, I should probably reply to this one... Printing under MacOberon does not produce satisfactory results on PostScript printers at this point. This is because at ETH we use a page description language different from PostScript, and a set of fonts which do not exist in PostScript format. The main objective in the current release of MacOberon was to get the system out to the world with some workable print mechanism quickly - esthetically pleasing solutions were out of the question. Our own MacOberon Macintoshes are all hooked up to a CeresNet and use the printing services of a Ceres print server (called Pluto, as you may have guessed). You have guessed correctly that the name of the server is simply ignored when printing to a PostScript printer. I am currently investigating three different solutions to the printing problem under PostScript: 1. I could offer a set of font metric files that would contain the exact sizes of the fonts that the printer substitutes for the Oberon fonts. Disadvantage: No WYSIWIG, no Oberon fonts on the printer. 2. I could release an interpreter for our own PD language. The image to appear on the page would then have to be downloaded to the printer. Disadvantage: Huge bitmaps would have to be transferred via slow LAN. 3. Pre-Rastered versions of the Oberon printer fonts could be downloaded to the PS device (300 and 400 dpi would be supported). This would produce optimum output and not put too much strain on the LAN. (Converting our own outline format to PostScript is out of the question, as is on-the-fly rastering on a slow Macintosh). Option (3) is currently being implemented. I will inform this newsgroup as soon as it is available. Michael Franz