> Dave Cragg wrote:
> I think you're being a little harsh on Metacard. It offers more
> printing support than many other programming/authoring tools.
It offers "print card". You basically get a screen dump. There is no
good way to calculate pagination, no easy way to send blocks of
formatted text to the printer, certainly no easy way to create automated
reports, and not even a command to just send a block of plain text to a
printer -- which, as unusual as I guess it is, I do frequently in
HyperCard. MetaCard's printing capabilities are very minimal.
The simplest printing routine -- sending a plain-text scrolling field to
the printer -- will take a substantial amount of time to write and you
will have to build a separate printing window to boot. In HyperCard, I
can do it by typing three words. In more complicated reports, it is easy
to spend days writing a single report. The same reports can be done in
HyperCard in a few minutes, using the built-in report functions.
If you do end up writing printing routines, I'd love to know how you
finally do pagination. I've already tried clicking at the bottom-right
corner of the printing field in order to find out where the page should
break (which is a horrible kludge in its own right,) as well as sliding
objects up out of view a page-height's distance. I've also tried using
one field to hold the (styled) text and moving it in pieces to a buffer
field and printing that. The first two break in Windows, where printer
font heights do not match their screen font heights, and the last method
destroys the user's clipboard. I challenge anyone to take my pseudotable
and write a routine that will print it out reliably on both Mac and Windows.
> I rarely have a need to print anything from Metacard.
I'm thinking that this must be the case with almost everyone, or there
would have been more discussion about it. But for business applications,
printing is an absolute requirement. I need to print all types of forms,
reports, and other data in every application I develop. I've written
printing routines now for two different programs in MetaCard, using
three different techniques, and none are acceptable. That's why I asked
for other ideas. No one volunteered any.
I don't intend to sound harsh on MetaCard in general -- I just believe
printing is an essential function and it is an area where MetaCard falls
down in a major way. Because of the lack of printing support, MetaCard
is not suitable for many of my projects.
> For my own
> needs, I prefer to export data and print from a word processor.
Yes, but this is unacceptable for commerical business applications. It
also won't move styled text, unless you export as htmltext and print
from a browser.
--
Jacqueline Landman Gay | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
HyperActive Software | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Custom hypermedia solutions | http://www.hyperactivesw.com
612.724.1596 | 612.724.1562 - fax
