[cups.general] Associate a backend with a printer?

[Michael Sweet]

Aaron,

On May 8, 2012, at 12:52 PM, Aaron Sher <asher at vanteon.com> wrote:
>> I had asked what you needed to do that the standard backends didn't do in a prior response - is there something preventing you from using the standard backends?
> 
> Sorry, I didn't see the prior response - I wasn't looking for replies on the development board, since I shouldn't have posted my original message there in the first place.
> 
> The issue that we have with the standard backends is that they're conservative with their timing. Our printer is very fast, and we'd like to reduce the job-to-job delay imposed by the standard backends, but I don't think there's any way of doing that without writing a custom backend?

Which backends are showing the delay?

What versions of CUPS/OS X?

There *have* been delays caused by SNMP lookups in particular - those can be removed by adding the following to your PPD file:

    *cupsSNMPSupplies: False

All of the backends will wait for confirmation that the printer has completed a job before moving on to the next one - there are manual configuration options to disable that functionality, but naturally we err on the side of reliability.

> ...
> If we did write a custom backend, how would we get the thing to show up in the add printer UI?

It will show up in the default "browser" pane of Add Printer.  Depending on the version of OS X being used, this will happen quickly (10.7 and later) or after a delay of several seconds (10.6 and earlier).

> I was assuming it would be under More Printers..., but the only one that I see at the moment is the HP IP Printing panel, which one of my coworkers wrote as a PBM many years ago. Presumably, to add something to that list, you'd need to implement a UI and not just a backend?

Right, and that (Tioga) stuff is deprecated...

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Michael Sweet, Senior Printing System Engineer, PWG Chair