Re: patch: handle PS/PDF in Gnus

[David Reitter <david.reitter@gmail.com>]

On 6 Jul 2007, at 16:54, Sean O'Rourke wrote:

> David Reitter <david.reitter@gmail.com> writes:
>> As for the patch, calling pdf2ps and pdftops is not a good idea since
>> this stuff isn't installed unless the user explicitly installs them
>> (e.g. Ghostscript, which is mostly useless on the Mac).
>
> This is for printing.  Do you know of a better way to print
> something without first displaying it?  (Maybe applescript?)

The Carbon framework has APIs for printing. You would have to output  
things on that end (i.e., implemented in C) and then you can call the  
standard print dialogs that will handle everything from outputting to  
PDF, choosing a printer and using the right driver, choosing a layout  
for the pages, etc.
That would be the correct way, and everything else is more or less a  
hack. It probably not worth implementing in Carbon, given that the  
Cocoa port is in the works.

That said, "lpr" should work for PS, PDF, plain text or standard  
image files even if the default printer is not PostScript capable  
(from OS X 10.4). So that's what I would try.

You can also print via AppleScript using the Preview application (it  
can bring up the print dialog directly), and that would work for  
PostScript files as well. But that's relatively hack-y...

- David