On 01/12/2011 9:10 PM, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
n message , Roy Smith
writes:
On 12/1/2011 8:21 AM, Wolf K wrote:
[]
This argument was beaten to death on a Linux group (very few mfrs
provide drivers for Linux).

The real issue is lack of standards. We're well past the time that
printers should be plug'n'play, and I don't mean that the OS installs a
driver when you plug in the printer. It's bizarre that one needs
different drivers for different printers made by the same manufacturer.
Etc.

At least basic common features: once one printer from that manufacturer
can be driven, using another should work for common features.

Yes, and it's surprising how often that is not possible. More than a
bizarre design choice: IMO it's insane.

If the
second one has additional features (higher resolution, ability to print
to the edge or double-sided, a stapler, ...) that the first one didn't,
then it is reasonable for those not to work without requiring extra
support.

Most of the features you mention are implemented in the printer's
firmwa all you see is a pane on which you can select such features,
but the OS doesn't do anything other than pass on the instruction(s).
Resolution has to be in the firmware, since the mfr cannot know what
software will be used to generate the documents and images to be printed.

Inference: standardising printer-computer interactions depends on how
the firmware is structured. Current printers are stupid, and leave too
much up to the OS, which is odd, since Commodore made smart printers
decades ago. What we need are smart printers. Or smarter ones. And we
need some standard protocols for presenting document files etc to a
printer for printing. Shouldn't be hard to do.

From a computer's POV, a printer (or any other peripheral) is really
just a data sink: send whatever data the peripheral asks for, and let it
deal with it designed. For example, leave the translation of document
data into printer data entirely up to the printer. All that would take
is a few MB of flashable memory to store translation scripts.
Instructions such as "print double sided" would be part of the data
stream's header.

HTH
Wolf K.