>> 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
I have the feeling we met before...haven't we?
Nobody is perfect. Anyway , using MC for a while now I'm pretty sure there
are some cross platform issues that prevented it from having a more
substantial printing support. Also features are added or developed in
accordance with the demand from users and although printing was discussed
before, I don't remember agreeing to a defined set of features cross
platform.
What I don't understand is the fact that no one mentions externals for MC
to supplement special needs.
I also don't understand the tone.
With your extensive HyperCard culture I'm sure you can find an external for
printing that does what you want and works with MC too, few of them don't .
For Windows...
Regards, Andu
