Joachim Van der Auwera writes:
A device driver can never setup a job.
You didnt read my algorithm: It doesnt. All it does is to CAUSE the calling job to do that. This is an accepted tequnique in Qdos.
Don't think so. I would like to know the details about how that would be done.
To simplify matters (the cheapest way of writing code) only a queue (pipe) would need to be used between the PFF device driver and the page rendering program (ie Proforma or Ghostscript). The page rendering program would be instructed how to output the data by the printer utility job based on settings found in the channel definition block [CDB] of the PFF driver.
If it was that simple there would be no discussion.
PROforma is not a page rendering program, it is just a library. If you call the library, there is no need for the device.
Ghostscript is a program which requires a specific input format (Postscript). If you can modify the software to generate the specific format, then you can just as well call Ghostscript directly, and there is no need for the device.
The filter programs are needed to support existing format and render using an existing library (we are discussing using PROforma)
When this is used, to support ancient programs, you need the device.
When this is written, you could use this mechanism in more recent programs to make it easier to produce fancy output (hence the native PROforma intermediate format).
Joachim
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