Flash@UMASS.BITNET.UUCP (03/30/87)
Howdy,
I have heard rumors to the fact, that the reason that the Atari laser
printer will probably be out earlier than originally planned is
because they have a finished GDOS driver for it.
That is nice and nifty, since a LASER.SYS driver probably drives any
graphics to its limit. Neat.
BUT! GDOS uses "bit mapped" fonts. And bit mapped fonts on a laser
printer is sacriledge! Why? Cause you will gets LOTS of pixels drawn
on the paper. Unless your fonts are drawn to full 300 dot-per-inch.
Something which I doubt, because of the RAM requirements to store that,
and you still have scaling problems.
Will Atari be putting out for the laser printer a text driver that
uses real fonts? (line/curve drawn fonts, rather than bit mapped)
Or will the true solution occur when Publishing Partner's Atari-Laser
printer drive comes out with true line/curve fonts?
Kind of interested, if the laser printer is GDOS driven, then you
CANNOT print bitmapped graphics on the same line as text. (Unless
there is a NEW version of GDOS finished) And the ONLY word processor
that can drive it (because of GDOS again) is Microsoft Word. And
Easy-Draw 2.0 is the only other package.
On to other things.
I run an Atari ST Dealership and Service center.
WHEN is Atari going to put out a "alignment" disk for the disk drives?
I have had MORE than several units suffer from drives that go out
of alignment withing the FIRST 2 weeks of the sale. (Great Quality
Control in Korea) And of course, Atari does not support re-aligning
the disk drives, because they have no alignment system. They just
tell us dealers to replace the entire drive.
I would think that supporting re-aligning the disk drive would be kind
of trivial. Every other computer company does. This should be supported
ESPECIALLY with the VERY high failture rate of new units. Especially
in the disk drives (where 80% of all failtures occur in new units).
Rick Flashman
1040 N. Pleasant Street, #381, Amherst, MA 01002. (413) 549-0173
Flash@UMASS.BITNET -or- Flash%UMASS.BITNET@WISCVM.WISC.EDU
R-FLASHMAN on GEniewheels@mks.UUCP (03/31/87)
In article <870330121248.000006FD.AOUG.MA@UMass>, Flash@UMASS.BITNET (Rick Flashman) writes: > WHEN is Atari going to put out a "alignment" disk for the disk drives? > I have had MORE than several units suffer from drives that go out > of alignment withing the FIRST 2 weeks of the sale. Just a question about this...why would an alignment disk have to come from Atari? Seems to me the alignment disks I've seen for 5.25" drives come from the drive manufacturers, not IBM, etc. Have you checked with Sony, or other 3.5" drive makers? -- Gerry Wheeler {seismo,decvax,ihnp4}!watmath!mks!wheels Mortice Kern Systems Inc.