Chooser
Encyclopedia
The Chooser is an application program for Macintosh systems using the original Mac OS
Mac OS
Mac OS is a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface...

. The Chooser started out as a desk accessory
Desk Accessory
A desk accessory is a small helper-type application that can be run concurrently with any other application on the system. Early examples, such as SideKick and Macintosh desk accessories, used special programming models to provide a small degree of multitasking on a system that initially did not...

 and became a standalone application program as of System 7
System 7 (Macintosh)
System 7 is a single-user graphical user interface-based operating system for Macintosh computers. It was introduced on May 13, 1991 by Apple Computer. It succeeded System 6, and was the main Macintosh operating system until it was succeeded by Mac OS 8 in 1997...

. The Chooser allowed users to connect to AppleShare file servers (via AppleTalk
AppleTalk
AppleTalk is a proprietary suite of protocols developed by Apple Inc. for networking computers. It was included in the original Macintosh released in 1984, but is now unsupported as of the release of Mac OS X v10.6 in 2009 in favor of TCP/IP networking...

 or TCP/IP), enable or disable the network access, and select which printer to use.

History

The original Macintosh computer did not support networking, but could connect to a variety of printer types via its serial ports. A small desk accessory called Choose Printer allowed the printer driver and serial port to be selected for the connected printer.

When Apple introduced the LaserWriter
LaserWriter
The LaserWriter was a laser printer with built-in PostScript interpreter introduced by Apple in 1985. It was one of the first laser printers available to the mass market...

, its very high cost meant that the only cost-effective way to use it was shared among a small workgroup
Workgroup (Computer networking)
A workgroup is Microsoft's terminology for a peer-to-peer Windows computer network.Microsoft operating systems in the same workgroup may allow each other access to their files, printers, or Internet connection...

 of Macintoshes. This necessitated the inclusion of AppleTalk
AppleTalk
AppleTalk is a proprietary suite of protocols developed by Apple Inc. for networking computers. It was included in the original Macintosh released in 1984, but is now unsupported as of the release of Mac OS X v10.6 in 2009 in favor of TCP/IP networking...

, a simple networking implementation which used low-cost cabling and the same physical RS-422 serial port hardware. It was a natural extension of Choose Printer to include the ability to select the LaserWriter and also which port was used to connect its network connection.

As AppleTalk became useful for other types of networking, such as file sharing, the Choose Printer accessory was renamed to simply Chooser. The Chooser became the main point to add top-level configuration options for both networking and printing.

Today

Starting with Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

, the Chooser was replaced by OS X's integrated networking features in the Finder
Macintosh Finder
The Finder is the default file manager used on Mac OS and Mac OS X operating systems; it is responsible for the overall user-management of files, disks, network volumes and the launching of other applications...

. For the printing functions, they are now found in the separate Print Center (10.0 - 10.2) and Printer Setup Utility
Printer Setup Utility
The Printer Setup Utility was an application in Mac OS X that served to allow the user to configure printers physically connected to the computer, or connected via a network...

(10.3 and later) applications.

It still exists in Mac OS 9, and is also required in OS X to select a printer for use with the "Classic" environment, where this is installed.
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