[cups.general] Cups

[Michael Sweet]

John wrote:
> Hi
> I would like to be provocative.

By all means, please do! :)

> I have successfully worked on a variaty of platforms over the past 35
> years. Printing is to say the least almost a universal 'computing'
> requirement and here we have cups. The underlying documentation is
> appallingly bad. The ppd file specification is an excellent example.

Well, we can't take credit for the PPD specification - that is
Adobe's work, not ours.

> It was clearly written by some one who knows what they are doing and
> assumes that every one else does too. While this is great for the
> 'boys' it's not much use for anybody else especially the
> inexperienced.

Well, given that the specification was written to assist computer
scientists in developing printer drivers for PostScript printers,
why would you expect that it would be written for Joe User?

> It's also clear from the questions posted here that the same
 > comments can be applied to cups documentation in general.

Can you be more specific?  What areas do *you* feel need
improvement?  What would you like to see?  If you don't get
specific, how can *we* determine what *you* want???

 > ...
> linux box. I like what I see. In that particular area I am left
> wondering why some one hasn't produced code that make use of the
> windows driver that COMES WITH EVERY PRINTER THAT IS CURRENTLY
> AVAILABLE. This has been done with codecs. The case is a lot clearer
> with printers. If one buys a printer one has clearly bought the
> driver that comes with it and the facilities it offers. I am firmly 
> convinced that Linux will remain in the backwaters until this area is
> finalised and all installations are at least tidied up and made more
> transparent to the typical user.

Well, in the case of codecs and network drivers, there is a well-
defined and simple interface that can be emulated in Linux.

Printer drivers are another matter entirely, and many will make
use of dozens of DLLs and any number of Windows system calls in
order to do their work.  Assuming that we *could* somehow emulate
enough so that common drivers worked, there is still the issue
that those drivers would only work on Intel-based systems.

In short, we (the CUPS developers) do not consider emulation to
be an effective long-term strategy and in the short-term would
be a monumental effort that would be better served by improving
native drivers on Linux and UNIX in general.

Fortunately, Linux support for most business printers and many
consumer printers is quite good as long as you are using a
printer-friendly Linux distro that keeps up with the free software
printer drivers.

-- 
______________________________________________________________________
Michael Sweet, Easy Software Products           mike at easysw dot com
Printing Software for UNIX                       http://www.easysw.com