kent@lloyd.camex.uucp (Kent Borg) (04/13/89)
Though the question still comes up weekly, we all pretty much know how the *user* can get PostScript output sent to a file rather than the LaserWriter, but is there a way for a *program* to do it? Is there a way for a program to get Apple's LaserWriter driver to convert QuickDraw calls to a file of ASCII PostScript? I see about 4 ways: 1) find the hidden bit that tells the LaserWriter driver to do that (I hope, I hope...), 2) fake-out the driver with a synthetic LaserWriter--either in the same Mac, or in another machine on the net (sounds like a lot of work, but could even be Chooser-friendly), 3) pretend to be the user and do the command-K business (sounds terrible, but might not be *that* bad), and 4) write my own driver which does this (cheating--avoids the question, and too much work). Anybody think of any more? Any good ideas on how to do one of these? Thanks, Kent Borg kent@lloyd.uucp or ...!hscfvax!lloyd!kent
olson@endor.harvard.edu (Eric K. Olson) (04/17/89)
In a recent article Kent Borg writes: >Though the question still comes up weekly, we all pretty much know how >the *user* can get PostScript output sent to a file rather than the >LaserWriter, but is there a way for a *program* to do it? > >I see about 4 ways: 1) find the hidden bit that tells the LaserWriter >driver to do that (I hope, I hope...), 2) fake-out the driver with a >synthetic LaserWriter--either in the same Mac, or in another machine >on the net (sounds like a lot of work, but could even be >Chooser-friendly), 3) pretend to be the user and do the command-K >business (sounds terrible, but might not be *that* bad), and 4) write >my own driver which does this (cheating--avoids the question, and too >much work). I looked into this once and found that the Laserwriter print routines check for command-K and command-F by looking at the boolean array returned by GetKeys() [IM I-259]. In fact, it doesn't check the command key, so just hitting K or F works too. It's not very Mac-like, is it? Perhaps if you patch GetKeys, you can convince it to dump Postscript files. The check might be between PrJobDialog() and the time you get control back, so you'll have to avoid messing up normal keyboard activity with the patch. I'm not sure GetKeys() is used by the event manager, though. Good Luck! -Eric Lexington Software Design: Tomorrow's Software Yesterday Eric K. Olson olson@endor.harvard.edu harvard!endor!olson (Name) (Arpanet) (Usenet)