Re: [Gnome-print] Re: [Gimp-print-devel] An introduction to gnome-print(fwd)

[Robert L Krawitz <rlk alum mit edu>]

   From: Miguel de Icaza <miguel@helixcode.com>
   Date: 31 May 2000 16:22:24 -0400

   > Okay...  Personally, I think that *might* be the case for Linux and
   > *BSD, but not for the commercial UNIX's for sure.  And gee, which
   > version will they ship, and how many people do you know that still
   > run Red Hat 5.x or some other old release and won't "upgrade"?

   Those systems have to either evolve or die.

   If they want to keep running a Unix from the 80's, thats fine with
   me.  They will have to explain that to their stock holders though.

I really hate to invoke this variant on Godwin's law, but you're
sounding an awful lot like Microsoft Windows.  And what's more (and
more to the point), your architecture -- having to have a whole stack
of unrelated libraries around, each of which has to be the correct
version -- just to do basics like printing is also starting to look a
lot like that.

The great strength of Unix, and the reason it's still going strong
after 30+ years -- more than half of the lifetime of the digital
computer -- is the philosophy and implementation of a lot of small,
simple tools that can be combined in very powerful ways to get a lot
done.  Having everything glommed together in a huge, monolithic system
without clear architectural boundaries becomes unmaintainable.  THAT'S
my main problem with all this.

If you focused on providing true application print services -- and as
I said, this Caanvas idea sounds really great in that regard, since it
provides a really nice way abstract drawable interface for
applications -- I think you could really push the state of the art in
terms of Unix.  Incorporate a real color management system like
Karl-Heinz Kremer is developing, and you'd have something really
powerful.  But you don't need to, and shouldn't (IMHO) be trying to
play around in the back end.  You understand the desktop environment
pretty well, but I really don't think you understand what life is like
in big-iron IT land.  That's what Mike and I keep trying to tell you.

-- 
Robert Krawitz <rlk@alum.mit.edu>      http://www.tiac.net/users/rlk/

Tall Clubs International  --  http://www.tall.org/ or 1-888-IM-TALL-2
Member of the League for Programming Freedom -- mail lpf@uunet.uu.net
Project lead for The Gimp Print --  http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net

"Linux doesn't dictate how I work, I dictate how Linux works."
--Eric Crampton