Apple Computer Inc insists its plan to ditch the printing component of its QuickDraw GX three-dimensional graphics software and introduce a unified printing architecture in future releases of its Mac OS operating system is to simplify printing interfaces for developers and has absolutely no reflection on QuickDraw itself. The company says there had not been a high adoption of QuickDraw GX’s print driver architecture among developers anyway, and that those that had used it would be given all the help and support they needed to rewrite their applications to use Apple’s standard Printing Manager architecture. Starting with the release of Mac OS scheduled for July and code-named Tempo (CI No 3,103), QuickDraw GX printer drivers and printing extensions will not be a user option at installation. The company says this will enable it to re-focus QuickDraw as a graphics application. Developers currently using QuickDraw GX 1.1.5 will be offered a modified system as a separate software library. They will need to modify their applications to use the new shared library to print via standard print drivers. The company said this will simplify life for developers who previously had to write two sets of executable code for printing. Apple says the move is part of its recently announced operating system strategy that will ultimately lead to Rhapsody, the system that will be based on Apple’s NeXT Software Inc acquisition’s NeXTstep. Apple would not be drawn on which printing architecture will ultimately be included in Rhapsody.
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