On Tue, 25 Aug 1998, gippah wrote:
>
> >If the authors of Netscape wanted to make a deskjet output format and
> >did it right, it could give you the same print quality that you've
> >gotten used to from Windows. The same goes for any Unix application
> >... the problem is that it needs to be done for each application.
>
> It's not really netscape's job to do that. In a multitasking
> environment, the daemon that handles printer control needs to do this.
> This is why it works so much better in windows when the daemon (driver)
> is written for that printer specifically.
>
> Sure, you can have anything that accesses the printer do so directly.
> Then we'd be back to where we were in the 1980's and had programs like
> wordperfect bundled with hundreds of different printer drivers. Also
> note that allowing this kind of hardware access would invariably break a
> multitasking OS.
>
For the record, the X11 "Broadway" release was supposed to include support
for printing. Then the funding from OSF dried up and - AFAIK - large
parts of this project were abandoned. I'm not sure if either of XOpen's
releases (6.3, 6.4) include printer support.
Anyway, the UNIX/linux printing system is unquestionably the achilles heel
of these systems when they compete mano y' mano against windows for the
desktop. Suggesting that printer control should be handled at the
application level should get someone a nice fat bonus from M$, as this
will have applications developers and users running, not walking, for
windows, regardless of how bug ridden it is.
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