dag@per2.UUCP (Daniel A. Glasser) (09/30/89)
Some people have gotten really angry over the lack of SLM804 support
in the various emulators running on the ST. Although I can simpathize
with these people, I must take exception to the accusations that they
are making about the developers of these emulators.
The SLM804 is not a simple laser printer with its own imaging engine and
some sort of byte serial interface to the computer. Support of the printer
requires the use of an in memory bitmap large enough to contain every pixel
imaged on the page (actually, with double buffering and async programming,
the in memory bitmap can be smaller, but it is very difficult to program the
ST in that manner.) This bitmap is then shipped to the printer via the DMA
port.
300dpi on an 8.5" x 11" page with an active area of 8" x 10.5" requires
2400 x 3150 pixels, or 300 bytes x 3150 scans, or 945,000 bytes. In addition,
this in-memory bitmap must be written to with text and graphics properly
scaled to the output device. Postscript output requires a postscript
interpreter, HP LaserJet output requires an HP PDL interpreter/emulator,
etc. These interpreters and emulators take a lot of time and effort to
write, are hard to debug, and require considerable memory for internal
font and format storage beyond the page bitmap.
The emulators do not run under or along with TOS. These programs must
either run as part of the emulator itself or under the emulator.
Add to that that the Atari DMA channel is very tricky to get right, and
the problem gets a little worse. Add to that that this support must be
transparent to the application running under the emulator, so it must
behave as a common device in whatever environment is being emulated.
David Small and the people at AG would probably be willing to integrate
improved SLM804 support if someone were to offer them the required code
at a reasonable price in a useable form. The support would probably be
limited to those machines with at least 2, and probably 4, megabytes.
Make whatever criterion you wish for your software selection. Tell the
world about those choices that you make. State a desire for features in
products that you find unusable because of the lack of those features.
Please don't keep whining about those "missing" features which were never
promised by the developers in the first place. Would it be better if the
product were delayed by the additional months/years that it might take
for a single programmer or a small team to add those features which could
only be used by a small minority of what already is a small market?
Maybe someone could develop a program that runs under MAC-OS specific
to the ST which would do a 300dpi imagewriter (or DeskWriter) emulation
on an SLM804 and sell this as a separate item.
If we, as a user community, could have a little more understanding of
the technology that we demand and those who attempt to provide us with
it, morale (which is VERY important in this business) would be much
better.
--
_____________________________________________________________________________
Daniel A. Glasser One of those things that goes
uwvax!per2!dag "BUMP!!!(ouch)" in the night.
---Persoft, Inc.---------465 Science Drive-------Madison, WI 53711-----------covertr@force.UUCP (Richard E. Covert) (10/03/89)
In article <880@per2.UUCP>, dag@per2.UUCP (Daniel A. Glasser) writes: > Some people have gotten really angry over the lack of SLM804 support > in the various emulators running on the ST. Although I can simpathize > with these people, I must take exception to the accusations that they > are making about the developers of these emulators. Daniel, you are still missing my point. My ONLY complaint with Dave Small, and Gadgets By Small was when Dave Small kept promising 300 dpi QuickDraw support of the SLM804. Dave made commitments to me as far back as September 1988. Now, I realize that writing the 300 dpi QuickDraw SLM804 driver has proven to be a BIG task. And I do appreciate the fact that Dave Small spent so much time and effort attempting to write a 300 dpi QD SLM804 driver. Unfortunately, it appears to have proven to be hard for even Dave and Dan to accomplish and the latest news that I have is that the 144 dpi ImageWriter Emulator is the currrent level of supprt for the SLM804. So, I do thank Dave and Dan for spending so much time and effort on the SLM804. I just wish that it had been easier to accomplish. I need to thank Atari for producing a Laser Printer that can not be supported by third party vendors!! > > so stuff omitted . . . > David Small and the people at AG would probably be willing to integrate > improved SLM804 support if someone were to offer them the required code > at a reasonable price in a useable form. The support would probably be > limited to those machines with at least 2, and probably 4, megabytes. > I don't know why Atari doesn't provide this support?? It would help immensely for GBS and Avant-Garde to have a software base to wrok from. Atari is the real guilty party in producing an unsupportable laser printer. As far as AG ever producing a pc ditto ii based SLM804 printer driver, they should talk to Dave and Dan at GBS. Maybe the two companies could work out a common set of software to support the SLM804?? Who knows?? > Make whatever criterion you wish for your software selection. Tell the > world about those choices that you make. State a desire for features in > products that you find unusable because of the lack of those features. > Dan, as the only printer I have is the SLM804, and seeing as how it works fine in the native ST mode, I see no reason to buy a dot matrix printer just to use the Spectre or the pc ditto ii emulators. So, untill and unless AG supports the SLM804 at 300 dpi, I will pass on the pc ditto ii. > Please don't keep whining about those "missing" features which were never > promised by the developers in the first place. Would it be better if the > product were delayed by the additional months/years that it might take > for a single programmer or a small team to add those features which could > only be used by a small minority of what already is a small market? > Daniel, if it is whining to ask for a promised feature, then I am whining. I have stopped 'whining' now that Dave Small has made it clear that the 144 dpi ImageWriter Emulator is the released support of the SLM804. Now, that I know what the situation is, I won't keep whining for the 300 dpi QuickDraw emulator for the SLM804 printer. All I know is that, back in 1988, even before the Spectre was released I called Dave Small and asked about the Spectre and the SLM804. Dave was honest and said that the first release of the Spectre wouldn't support the SLM804 l.p.. But, and here is the rub, Dave promised, to develop a QD 300 dpi driver for the SLM804. A year has gone bye and it has proven to be next to impossible, and Dave has released instead a 144 dpi ImageWriter emulator. so, the feature was changed when it was proven to be impossible to develop a 300 dpi driver. That is the way life is sometimes. > Maybe someone could develop a program that runs under MAC-OS specific > to the ST which would do a 300dpi imagewriter (or DeskWriter) emulation > on an SLM804 and sell this as a separate item. > Yep, that would be nice, and I might be willing to pay some bucks for such a program. So, any takers out there?? > If we, as a user community, could have a little more understanding of > the technology that we demand and those who attempt to provide us with > it, morale (which is VERY important in this business) would be much > better. > -- > I have ALWAYS said that Spectre is a fine product. My ONLY complaint with Spectre is the limited SLM804 printer support. That and the fact that Dave Small and I fight like cats and dogs!!! But, I have nothing but the highest respect for Dave Small, Dan Moore and the rest of the folks at Gadgets By Small. _____________________________________________________________________________ > Daniel A. Glasser One of those things that goes > uwvax!per2!dag "BUMP!!!(ouch)" in the night. > ---Persoft, Inc.---------465 Science Drive-------Madison, WI 53711----------- Richard Covert at Large