Re: An Idea...

[Wolfgang Sourdeau <wolfgang ultim net>]

On Wed, 12 Jan 2000, Sergey Zhumatiy wrote:

>   Hello!
> 
>   Look to the StarOffice, ApplixWare, GIMP. They all
> have own printers drivers. While in Windoze I can
> simply draw any pictures/texts/etc as on screen, as on
> printer! Any simple program can print on ANY PRINTER.
> I don't need Postscript or knowledge about printer protocol.
> If there is a DRIVER (which is written by printers producer),
> then I can print on it. With any features (econofast/etc),
> any resolution, etc...
> 
While I totally agree with you that not all softwares respect the
standards, there IS actually a de facto standard image format under unix
which is postscript. Normally, every software having a print function
should first print to a postscript file. And from there the unix print
system converts the file to a printer-compatible format. Ghostscript
does that for a lot of printer-models (check if your printer, if not
listed, is compatible with one of the listed models : gs --help).

For what the printing system is concerned, it is true that a few
functions are now missing in a modern graphical environment:
- when my document doesn't print, I'd like to have a message box to tell
me the printing system failed;
- when I want to fax a document, I'd like to print it in a standard way
and my fax software to popup a window asking for needed informations...

For what I can see, I think that what the printing system is missing is
informations such as:
- the display information from where the print request was sent (whether
under X or text terminal).

-- 
Les nombres imitent l'espace, qui est de nature si différente.
Pascal, Pensées