🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <18536@apple.Apple.COM> casseres@Apple.COM (David Casseres) writes:
>In article <15098@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> steve@violet.berkeley.edu (Steve Goldfield) writes:
>>... I've found that the most general way to write
>>such a program to print on continuous labels is to set the
>>form length to the length of the label and eject after each
>>label. I have a LaserWriter but purchased an LQ specifically
>>to print continuous labels.
>
>It sounds to me as if you're trying to port a non-Macintosh program to the
>Mac, without having learned much about the software architecture of the
>Mac.   You get points for bravery but I'm not surprised that you're getting
>some big surprises.
>
>>The Problem
>>
>>... I've been informed that the Macintosh
>>system prevents me as a user from controlling the printer,
>>that the printer can only be controlled through its driver,
>>and that to do what I want I'd have to write a custom driver,
>>which is an extremely demanding project.
>>
>>I managed to rewrite my label program to get around the
>>form-length problem (though I still can't control print
>>quality through software commands). But I would still like
>>to know why Apple chose to implement the Macintosh system
>>in such a way as to prevent the user from making optimal
>>use of her/his equipment.
>
>The bad news is that label printing is a very specialized application, and
>the existing architecture for printing just doesn't handle it very well.  To
>make printing work the way you would like it to would mean a reimplementation
>of all of Apple's drivers, and Apple hasn't considered that a high enough
>priority.


I'm going to have to be careful here, contradicting an Apple Expert :-)

The fact is, the Mac does quite well at printing labels. The only problem
is that the Imagewriter II, like some other printers, dies a horrible death
if you try to do a pagesuck (or just suck a bunch of lines) since the label
tends to get pulled off of the page and onto the platen or {metal thingy that
touches the platen}.

To print labels is quite easy. You can either choose to do it the Mac way or
the DOS way. If you want to do it the Mac way, you edit the PREC 3 resource
in your printer driver so that one of the page sizes is the same vertical size
as a label. Then just print normally, and everything will work fine. I've
done this for several clients.

If you want to do it the DOS way, it's even easier. I suspect that this was
your intention since you mention McMax. (And might I suggest here that you
switch to FoxBase. It's better than McMax in just about every way, more able
to do the Mac interface correctly, AND more dBase III+ compatible.) You
simply print in the Draft mode, and then all of your beloved escape codes
will work just the way you want.

In FoxBase you can use the printer driver in either a totally Mac mode, or
in draft mode. You can ALSO bypass the printer driver entirely and print
directly to the serial port. This is more efficient than printing in draft
mode, but of course you can forget about the Mac graphics. This mode will
also allow you to connect any non-Apple printer to your Mac and use your
IBM printing code entirely unchanged (you will need a parallel-to-serial
converter if you have a parallel printer).

<flame on>

In general, the Mac Printing architecture doesn't have any of the minor flaws
mentioned in the original article. It has the _overriding_ flaw that it is
impossible to write a truly compatible third-party driver right now. Apple
has guaranteed that they will break, since the whole architecture will change.
That's understandible- it has to change. I just wish they'd do it SOON.
<flame off>

That problem won't stop you from printing labels, though.

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