At 12:45 25/03/99 EST, Ira McDonald wrote:
>Hi Harry and Geoff,
>>To clarify, in general you don't send raw word processing
>datastreams to printers (like MS Word's '.doc') - you send
>some interpreter datastream (like PostScript, PCL, etc).
>The print driver (or some other software element) on the
>CLIENT system converts from the operating system proprietary
>graphics device calls which are emitted by the word
>processing application into some interpreter language
>(like PostScript). While some printers do accept
>source word processing formats (like MS Word '.doc')
>the results are spotty at best and non-portable.
And tend to give the printer a rather limited shelf-life ?-)
Responding to Geoff's point, the conversion *always* has to be done
somewhere, whether one is printing on a LAN or over a wide area. So in
that respect I think IPP is like printing on a long LAN.
The current model I am familiar with is that the conversion from
application format to some relatively stable intermediate format (e.g.
postscript, PCL, PDF, etc.) is performed on the platform running the
application. Further conversion may be performed by intervening systems or
on the receiving printer.
#g
------------
Graham Klyne
(GK at ACM.ORG)