[cups.development] ppdMarkOption/ppdConflictsperformanceimprovement

[Hidetomo Katsura]

> Because ordinary users have difficulty choosing among that?> many options,
especially when they conflict with one another.?
could you stop complaining about other components already?

you know why constraints are there in the first place, right? certain options
can't coexist. as the number of features increases, there are more possible
combinations of options, hence more constraints.

whether you like it or not, complex PPD files do exist. there isn't much you
can do about it. you can try, but that's not what this discussion is about.

> The vast majority of drivers have 12 or less options, with?> the page size
option normally having the most choices.  The?> reason is simple - more
options than that make the driver?> hard to use.?
options are there from necessity for high end printers, not for home or small
office printers which print just a regular document or photo.?
well, if you go by the vast majority, that's too bad. that automatically
abandons Mac users.

and again, the performance improvement is needed where it matters, not where
it doesn't matter.

and you got the logic completely backwards. you don't decide the number of
options, the users (or printer manufacturers) do.
?> We *have* focused on CUPS and we *have* implemented a five-fold?>
improvement in ppdConflicts that is used repeatedly by the Apple?> print
dialog.?
yes, thank you for that great improvement. i thought i already mentioned
that. thanks again.

but i'm talking about your "focus" on bringing up other components to blame
while we need to talk about cups improvements.

and i'm talking about n times improvement (n being the number of options).

anyways, i'll come up with something if i get a chance to work on it, and
i'll let you know.
?> If you won't provide a PPD, there is NO way I can even test against?> the
file you are working with.?
right. sorry, i forgot to mention about that. i'll ask my manager or someone
who has authority to release our PPDs outside of our customers.
?> Sure, there are more options and features, but that does not have?> to
require more complexity!?
i agree. but it has nothing to do with improving cups. again, could we focus
on cups rather than blaming on existing PPD files or other components?
features and constraints are there by their design. there is not much we can
do about it.

>> btw, i wasn't aware of the cups 1.1 performance issue until recently. i
was?>> surprised that no one did anything about it for so many years on Mac
OS X.?> 
> Probably because your PPD is completely outside of the norm, and/or
> not enough people have reported this problem to Apple.

no, that's because i'm new to this field. i got involved in printing since
four weeks ago.

the slow cups is a major issue to our customers. it's not outside of the norm
at all to us.

> Sorry,  I don't have any special influence over Apple WRT their GUIs.

no, not the GUI. just the people involved in printing at Apple. you don't
need to ask other people whether they filed bugs or not. you can just tell
them to fix it.

thanks,
katsura