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: 09 Jun 2000 03:14:17 -0400

   >    Did I miss anything?
   > 
   > Yes.  What exactly do people lose by always using a PS driver?

   Nothing.  If they want to use it, fine with me.

   I still want to provide native drivers to printers.  And this is bad
   exactly how?

1) You're wasting your time duplicating someone else's work to no good
   end (as you admit that a PostScript driver could accomplish
   everything native drivers could).  You have to keep on doing this
   forever (at least until the sun becomes a red giant), as new
   printers will constantly be released.

2) You cannot do accounting with native printer drivers.  Before you
   say "I can put accounting in the native printer drivers", let me
   point out that you're now trying to put accounting in the client,
   and thus you're trusting the client not to deliberately screw up
   the accounting.  That's a no-no.

3) Whatever Chema was able to do with PCL, not all printer languages
   can be compressed in this fashion.  You're still talking about a
   massive excess of spool space and network bandwidth for this.

Since you admit that Postscript output loses nothing, why exactly do
you feel compelled to duplicate this effort?  The metafile idea is
fine if you really think Postscript is too limited for you, but this
is just insane.

-- 
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