Hello Rob,
On 16-Nov-00, you wrote:
>> I simply don't see how the OS could generate the PS output, or for
>> that matter the bitmaps needed for non-PS printing.
> Well, that's what a printer DRIVER is for. The OS already does do some
> of that. And the OS is exactly the place it should be done. What's the
> point of every application having to understand every possible printer
> that has and might ever exist? It's just not feasible.
You are right and you are wrong. The printer driver is for creating
*printer specific* commands from the *generic* format it receives from the
application. But you still need the application to generate this generic
format (be it PS or bitmaps).
> Incidentally, non-PS printing doesn't need to use bitmaps any more
> than PS printing does.
If you are not trying to print only a very plain text, you will have to
resort to using bitmaps on non-PS printers.
>> Only the browser knows where each letter and each image is on the web
>> page, and the size of each image, and the fonts used. That is the
>> information to be sent to the printer, using a series of simple
>> commands. What can the OS do here?
> Translate it into the language that the printer understands. It has to
> do that on some level, anyway, even if it's only sending a series of
> electrical pulses out on the right piece of hardware.
See above. The OS level (the printer driver) can only work with the data
it receives from the application. *Then* (and not sooner) it can convert
those to the actual commands to the printer.
>> Do you expect the OS to convert HTML direct to PostScript? It could
>> if
> No, absolutely not. The browser is the only thing that understands and
> needs to understand PS.
You are contradicting yourself here. Before, you said that it is the
printer drivers job to create the PS/bitmap (or at least that's how I
have to interpret your words), and now you say the contrary.
>> it had its own HTML engine, like IE in Windows. Are you suggesting
>> that
> IE is not Windows. IE is to the Windows OS exactly as Voyager is to
> the Amiga OS.
Not exactly. IE's HTML rendering is far more integrated into Windows.
That's a reason why it is so fast.
>> AWeb should be set up in the OS to lay out the HTML and print to
>> PostScript? Then Voyager could just collect the files and pass them
>> on to AWeb.
> I don't follow you there - what does AWeb have to do with this? It's
> another browser, so what's the relevance??
I think what Don meant was that IE is just not "another browser" to
Windows.
>> I think HTML-to-Postscript conversion is the job of the browser. DTP
>> programs make their own Postscript code. So should a browser, which
>> has a much simpler problem.
> A much simpler problem? How so? DTP programs already define page
> layout. Web browsers don't. The whole point of a web browser is to
> show things onscreen. The whole point of DTP software is to allow you
> to produce printed output. DTP programs absolutely shouldn't produce
> their own postscript output. If they do this, they do it because they
> have no alternative. That doesn't mean that's how it should be.
> Windows DTP applications certainly don't do that.
Windows DTP applications let Windows convert their output to PS? I doubt
that. What would be the advantage compared to generating PS on your own?
For the simple problem: For a web brower, it not a very big difference
from layouting HTML on the screen and layouting HTML on printed page.
The layout routine is the same, only the output is different. The most
important difference is that you have to care for page breaks.
> [snip]
> Regardless of the fact that you are overstating the importance of and
> discriminating in favour of postscript, you're missing the point. It's
> printer *drivers* (part of the OS) that should handle the language.
> All the browser should do is speak to the driver.
The advantage that Postscript has over other printer languages, is that
you can convert it to other (printer specific) languages with
Ghostscript. Furthermore, it is a widely accepted standard. That's why
there are so many Postscript printers.
Best Regards
--
Jens Neubauer ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
http://www.taurik.de/
(PGP key available)
- Amiga 1200T/PPC 603e+ -
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