Re: LaserWriter Help!

[dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson)]

Supertimer <supertimer@aol.com> wrote:

> dempson@actrix.gen.nz (David Empson) wrote:
> 
> >There is nothing which resembles a Print Manager printer driver (which
> >you could select via the DC Printer control panel), and the IISC doesn't
> >support Postscript, so there is no way you could print to it.
> 
> Well, if the IISC does indeed not support PS, then perhaps GS+
> was talking about some other SCSI printer.

I doubt it.  Apple didn't make any other SCSI printers, as far as I
know.  The generic SCSI driver source code does refer to an "SC
printer".

> However, the IISC being a QuickDraw printer is very interesting.
> The StyleWriter is a QuickDraw printer too, right?

Yeah, but so are the ImageWriter I, II, LQ, every HP DeskJet model, etc.

The term "QuickDraw printer" just means that a driver on the Mac is
responsible for generating graphical data to send to the printer.

By comparison, a Postscript printer receives Postscript language code
from the computer, and does the image rendering internally.  The
LaserWriter driver acts as a Postscript language generator, taking
QuickDraw drawing calls as input.

A third class is a GDI (Windows) printer, which excepts to receive
Windows drawing calls directly from the computer.

> As a purely theoretical question, then, the fact that a printer is a
> QuickDraw printer does not itself prevent a driver from being written for
> it to work with the IIGS, right?

In theory, it would be possible to support this printer.  Practical
considerations:

1. Someone would have to write a Print Manager driver that would be
specific to this printer.  Not likely, given the small market.

2. A Print Manager port driver would be needed.

3. The SCSI printer driver would need to be completed, assuming it isn't
quite there.

4. Apple never released any documentation on the printer command set for
the IISC.  Unless it emulates something else, it would be necessary to
reverse engineer its command set by running one on a Mac.  Since the
connection to the printer is a SCSI bus, this would be staggeringly
difficult (unlike a serial connection, where you can at least hook in
and monitor the data).

-- 
David Empson
dempson@actrix.gen.nz
Snail mail: P.O. Box 27-103, Wellington, New Zealand