Re: flexfax: Design for a portable Java hylafax clients:iwantyouropinions, please!

[Iain Stevenson <iain@IainStevenson.com>]

Hi Bernd,

Sorry for the delay - my ISDN line went down at the weekend, then a disk
went on my server ....

>> The PPD file attached contains a "resource fork" for the Mac ie it
> Windows does not know the mac resource fork. :-(
> I guess there is no printer driver which can access the info there.

.. but the text bit should still work OK.  The problem is that the
customisation features in the print dialog aren't portable to Windows :-(

> 
> Do you have access to a phonebook from within your modified printer
> dialog? I think no, isn't this a problem for you?
> 

You're right, I don't.  In general, much as it pains me to say it, the level
of address book integration on the Mac is behind that on Windows.  On
Windows, Outlook provides scheduling, contact management etc.  On the Mac,
Outlook Express only includes contact management and a LDAP client (which
works with OpenLDAP under Linux).  I have a Pilot so I tend to use the
contact management and scheduling features of this.

So, what I would like to do is:

- use a Laserwriter based interface for fax (since I use a laser printer)
- extract fax details from the Pilot desktop or LDAP.

I don't need all the features of the MacFlex client.  It may be possible to
build some components of the directory integration using Applescript -
creating the fax file and transferring it to Hylafax seems to me to be the
"showstopper".

Regards,

  Iain