[cups.general] Documentation clarification for CUPS newbie

[Michael Sweet]

Ambrose Li wrote:
> On 03/08/06, Kurt Pfeifle <kpfeifle at danka.de> wrote:
>> gcr <quaternion at comcast.net> wrote (Thursday 03 August 2006 04:58):
>>
>> > let me suggest the following: why not simply mention in the CUPS
>> > documentation that WINDOWS networking with CUPS is questionable
>> > owing to only partial IPP support, rather than flatout asserting
>> > that such a capability is non-existent.
>>
>> See
>>
>>   http://www.cups.org/doc-1.1/sum.html#2_2   <-- CUPS User Manual
>>   http://www.cups.org/doc-1.1/sam.html#2_2   <-- CUPS Admin Manual
>>
>> Where/how would you improve this?
> 
> For me, it would be at least two things, after quickly scanning the two
> docs referenced above.
> 
> First, both documents claim that it is supported by Windows 2000. In my
> experience, ths is the opposite; i.e., the add-on support in Windows 95/98
> works (to the point that printing works, but not job deletion), while the
> built-in support in Windows 2000 does NOT work. Thus I feel it is
> appropriate to stress the support as incomplete/buggy, versus a simple
> statement that support exists.

Interesting, since we regularly print via IPP from our Win2k boxes...
Perhaps you have a firewall that is preventing the outgoing requests
on port 631?

> Second, somewhere in the admin manual (as referenced above) says
> 
>        While CUPS does not provide Windows support directly,
>        the free SAMBA software package does.
> 
> I have always thought that this is a rather bizzare (if not outright wrong)
> statement. (It contradicts the statement mentioned above, for example.)
> At the very least, it gives the impression that whoever wrote the manual
> doesn't know what he/she is talking about.

While the documentation is certainly now out of date, this statement
is not incorrect.

The issue with IPP printing on Windows is that you (currently) have
to associate the printer driver manually (or via a helper app) on
the client.  Windows provides some mechanism for driver download
via IIS, but we're still trying to crack that undocumented protocol...

With Samba, however, you can register drivers on your print server
and then have them automatically downloaded by the clients the first
time they ask to use the printer, either through the Network Places/
Neighborhood icon or the Add Printer wizard.

-- 
______________________________________________________________________
Michael Sweet, Easy Software Products           mike at easysw dot com
Internet Printing and Document Software          http://www.easysw.com