Specifications

Apple II Technical Notes
2 of 4 #77: Print Manager & AppleTalk Configuration Files
What Writes to the Printer.Setup and ATInit Files?
Before Apple IIGS System Software 5.0, Printer.Setup and ATInit were handled as completely
separate configuration files. The Print Manager call PrChoosePrinter allowed you to select
the printer and port drivers the Print Manager would use and wrote the printer and port driver
selections to the Printer.Setup file. The AppleTalk application Chooser.II let you select the
printer AppleTalk’s Remote Print Manager would use and wrote the printer entity selection to
the ATInit file.
With System Software 5.0 all printer selections for both the Print Manager and AppleTalk are
made by using one of the Control Panel NDA’s printer CDevs. All printer CDevs (e.g.,
DirectConnect, ATIWriter, ATLQIWriter, and ATLWriter) write the new printer and port driver
selections to the Printer.Setup file. However, if the printer selected uses the AppleTalk port (i.e.,
the selection is made with the ATIWriter, ATLQIWriter, or ATLWriter printer CDevs), then the
selected printer’s network address and your User Name are written to both the Printer.Setup and
the ATInit files. The DirectConnect CDev does not write any information to the ATInit file. If
AppleShare is installed, then the AppleShare CDev will also write your User Name to the ATInit
file.
On AppleShare file servers with the Apple II Setup option installed, the ATInit file in User
folders will also be written to by the AppleShare Admin application when the Apple II startup
information is set.
When are the Printer.Setup and ATInit Files Read?
The Printer.Setup file is read by the Print Manager and by the printer CDevs. The Print Manager
reads the information contained in the Printer.Setup file whenever the Print Manager needs to
load a printer driver or a port driver into memory. A printer CDev reads the information
contained in the Printer.Setup file when that CDev is selected so it can know the current printer
and port selections.
Ways the printer driver and the port driver might be unloaded and need to be loaded (which will
cause Printer.Setup to be read by the Print Manager) are as follows:
• The Print Manager is shut down.
• The current printer driver or port driver is changed with a Control Panel printer
CDev. When a new printer or port is selected with a printer CDev, the current
drivers are unloaded from memory so the Print Manager will be forced to read the
new printer and port selections from Printer.Setup.
• Your application makes the PMUnloadDriver Print Manager call.
An application can load one or both of the drivers (which will cause Printer.Setup to be read by
the Print Manager) by making the PMLoadDriver call. The AppleTalk user configuration
information contained in the ATInit file is read during system startup as part of AppleTalk’s
initialization.