gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu (06/09/90)
In system 6.0 (or was it 5.2?), Apple fixed the "flashing alarm clock"
problem. This used to be the most commonly asked question in
comp.sys.mac.*.
Now we turn our attention to generating postscript for non-apple
printers, which is a mess. This is now the most commonly asked
question in these newsgroups. System 7.0 is an ideal time to make the
following improvements --
1. The "disk file" checkbox should be visible in the laserwriter
driver shipped with system 7.0 (or equivalent).
2. It should be possible to set this checkbox to be TURNED ON by
default (or through the chooser).
3. The laserprep file produced on macintoshes is incompatible with
virtually ALL non-apple printers. This is ridiculous. The whole idea
of generating a laserprep file is for use on non-apple printers.
Apple should revise its laserprep to make it run on other printers.
They should take out the handful of non-standard, needless postscript
instructions that cause most printers to choke.
4. The destination folder of the postscript file is always a
surprise. This can be fixed with ResEdit, but only by changing the
string resource and hard-wiring a hard disk name into the laserwriter
icon. I'd like to see a more general way of specifying "Postscript
files go into folder xyz".
5. The names "Postscript0".."Postscript9" are unimaginative.
Personally, I NEED these names to stay the same in order to run my
(brain-damaged) uploading RR9.4 scripts. But others would rather see
the postscript from "file" named something like "file.ps" or
"file.ps0".."file.ps9". It would be nice to provide both options.
6. MOST IMPORTANT: please add a page or two of documentation to the
macintosh owner's manual. This will benefit the thousands of clueless
users who don't have usenet access.
I hope Apple will take these suggestions seriously, and clean up one
of the great mysteries about macintosh printing.
Don Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois
1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801
ARPA: gillies@cs.uiuc.edu UUCP: {uunet,harvard}!uiucdcs!gilliesgillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu (06/14/90)
I received the following information about system 7.0
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Actually, ALL of the recommendations you made have already been
incorporated into LaserWriter v. 7.0a9, and will be present in the final
release.
Also, the driver no longer requires a separate Laser Prep file, and
furthermore does not permanently install the LaserPrep stuff in printer RAM
but uploads it each time, eliminating driver conflicts on a network.
--------------------
There will be a "Postscript[TM] file" radio button in the laserwriter
dialogue. When you click on this radio button, an SF dialogue appears
so that you may name the file.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This may NOT be a good thing, for the following two reasons:
(1) It should be possible to generate a postscript file BY DEFAULT.
People who use remote printers or service bureaus never want their mac
to look for a laserwriter. For these people, they'd like to hack on
the laserwriter icon using ResEdit, or configure postscript through
the chooser, so a file is always generated.
(2) We really want to upload the postscript file ASAP, using a
realiable protocol (kermit). If the postscript goes into a file, the
upload script cannot FIND the file if user picks some random filename,
or if the file is directed to a random directory (as it is now). Will
there be a way of naming the file "Postscript0", "Postscript1",... by
default, like in the old days [perhaps if the user types nothing for
the filename]?) Will there be a way to predict the destination of the
file (as there is now...)
I am trying to make life as simple as possible for my users. Right
now, they must do two things:
(A) check the "disk file checkbox" [this step can go away if Apple
is will do (1) above]. Our laserwriter resources are
hacked to send postscript to the top-level directory.
(C) double-click a Red Ryder script, and possibly log into a mainframe.
I don't want the user to have to select a file to upload, the
file is implicit. But if the user can give any name he wants to
the file, then he will be forced to reselect the name he chose when
printing. Our script uploads, prints, deletes the local file, and
logs out, voila.
Ideally, this would all happen seamlessly. Can Apple provide a way
for the laserwriter driver to hand off its output to another running
program (or my own custom-written login / file transfer / logout
software?)
I hope Apple gets this stuff right.
Don W. Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois
1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801
ARPA: gillies@cs.uiuc.edu UUCP: {uunet,harvard}!uiucdcs!gilliesmwilkins@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Mark Wilkins) (06/15/90)
In article <71200007@p.cs.uiuc.edu> gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu writes: >Ideally, this would all happen seamlessly. Can Apple provide a way >for the laserwriter driver to hand off its output to another running >program (or my own custom-written login / file transfer / logout >software?) > >I hope Apple gets this stuff right. Giving the user no opportunity to name and place the postscript file is a step back, not a step forward, because it does not allow for the possibility that the user wants to do something like edit the postscript. If you will be running on a 7.0a9 system, why not just insist that if the user wants to have the thing printed that it be put in a "Print Me" folder on the disk or something. Then, when they run Red Ryder your script can upload everything in the "Print Me" folder. That way, if they are doing anything with the postscript other than printing it on your mainframe, they can give it a meaningful name and put it somewhere useful. -- Mark Wilkins -- "According to our contract, at precisely midnight of the night of her greatest triumph, the party of the first part, (that's you), agrees to render up her soul, now and forevermore, to the party of the second part. (That's me). Shall we go?"