covertr@force.UUCP (Richard E. Covert) (09/14/89)
In article <8909092229.AA11377@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>, 01659@AECLCR.BITNET (Greg Csullog) writes: > I have heard reports that Ditto II is supposed to allow printing to the > SLM804 laser. I hope this is true. I use a '286/'287 PC at work and it is > a real pain waiting 10 to 20 minutes for detail graphics to print out on > an HP laserjet via the parallel port. The same GEM pic that took l{14 min 55 sec > on the PC took only 45 seconds from a Mega 2 to the SLM804 (unfortunately, > the SLM804 is not in my work area or I would use it instead of the PC/HP > combo). With Ditto II, I could run GEM Draw on my ST and print it to an > SLM804. That way, I could justify getting an SLM804 in my work area (with > Spectre GCR I can print Mac stuff to the SLM804 as well, not to mention > lots of ST code output). > > Question: Does Ditto II support the SLM804????? From what I understand, from messages both on USENET and GEnie, the first release of pc-ditto II will NOT have a SLM804 printer driver. Avant-Garde, the makers of pc ditto II, have indicated that they want to produce a SLM804 driver, but it won't be available for awhile yet. I plan to write a nice, polite letter to A-G and ask them to write the SLM804 driver as soon as possible. I hope that other SLM804 owners will write such a letter as well. If A-G (Avant-Garde) gets enough letters from SLM804 owners, it might help convince A-G of the demand for the SLM804. Who knows?? Until they do,as the SLM804 is my only printer, I don't plan to buy a pc-ditto II. On another note, Spectre 128 is supposed to support the SLM804 with release 2.0 of Spectre software. As I do NOT have version 2.0 of the Spectre 128 software, I can only repeat what I have learned from messages on GEnie.The resolution will be a 144x144 DPI Imagewriter emulation. Thus, you will be able to print, theorectically, anything, but only at 144x144 dpi resolution. I got this directly from David Small on GEnie. I repeat, I do NOT speak for Gadgets By Small. I can only tell you what I have been told on GEnie. Contact Gadgets By Small directly for more current information. Dan Moore, the programmer at GBS writing the SLM804 driver, can be reached here on comp.sys.atari.st, so you might try asking Dan Moore for the latest offical GBS news on the SLM804. While third vendor hardware emulators are great, it is a darn shame that the SLM804 is so hard to support under the emulators. GBS has spent the last year trying to develop a 300x300 dpi SLM804 driver, and they still haven't accomplished it (no flames to GBS, at least they have tried!!). So, I don't really expect Avant-Garde to get a 300x300 dpi SLM804 printer driver written soon!! But good luck to them!! P.S. Any SLM804 printer driver not capable of 300 dpi printing is a waste of the fine printing capability of the SLM804. It would be a shame to be restricted to the equivalent of a nine-pin dot matrix printer, when you have a laser printer capable of 300 dpi!! But, GBS is not the only company having difficulty with the SLM804. The makers of the Eureopen Mac emulator ALLADIN just released another SLM804 printer which is only 144x144 dpi also!! So, as far as I know, there is NOT an emulator available anywhere which will print at the maximum resolution that the SLM804 is capable of!! And even the German EPSON printer emulator, for the ST, is only marginally useful as it has limited resolution, and fonts. Someone needs to write a universal SLM804 driver so that Spectre and pc ditto could use it!! What a darn shame!!! I wish Atari would do something (anything!!) to help Avant-Garde or Gadgets By Small write a good SLM804 printer driver. richard (gtephx!covertr) covert