Technical Q&A

GXPD 26 - Adding Print Items to a Dialog (1-Aug-95)

Important for all Apple Printing and Graphics Developers:

The information in this Technical Q & A is still relevant up to and including Mac OS 7.6 with QuickDraw GX 1.1.5. Beginning with the release of Mac OS 8.0, however, Apple plans to deliver a system which incorporates QuickDraw GX graphics and typography only. QuickDraw GX printer drivers and GX printing extensions will not be supported in Mac OS 8.0 or in future Mac OS releases. Apple's goal is to simplify the user experience of printing by unifying the Macintosh graphic and printing architectures and standardizing on the classic Printing Manager.

For details on Apple's official announcement, refer to </dev/technotes/gxchange.html>

Q I need to add print items to a QuickDraw GX dialog box. In attempting to use Example No. 9 on the MacOS CD, I found what appears to be a bug. This example uses GXGetMessageHandlerResFile() when it calls GXSetupDialogPanel, but it should call CurResFile().

A You are correct. Applications should call CurResFile(). GXGetMessageHandlerResFile() is reserved for extensions and drivers.

For additional code examples that add print items to a QuickDraw GX dialog box, see the WWDC Technology 1995 CD (or the MacOS SDK). The Extension Shell, UserItems, and Additions samples provide the basic shell and item adding/handling code that you require. The path to these samples on the WWDC Technology 1995 CD is:

WWDC Technology 1995: QuickDraw GX: Programming Stuff: Sample Code: Printing Samples: Extensions...)

Technical Q&A
Previous Question | Contents | Next Question