Re: [Gnome-print] Gfax and gnome-print.

[Lauris Kaplinski <lauris ximian com>]

Hello!

I am the maintainer of gnome-print, and I was/am doing the integration of
fax driver by Roberto Majadas.
The current state of affairs is following:
gnome-print fax driver is simply bitmap driver, that produces g3 bitmap as output.
We want to circumvent ghostscript as much as possible with gnome-print to break
us as free as possible from different system setups - and fax is certainly one
simple format, that does not need postscript/ghostscript, legacy lpr support aside.
For test setups current gnome-print simply saves bitmap to temporary file and
executes gfax program for delivery. For gnome-1.4 nothing more complex is needed.
Unfortunately I do not have working fax setup, so I have not been able to test
the delivery (and bitmap driver has some bugs too).

My ideas for future (gnome-2.0 or post-1.4)
1. Integration of adressbooks. As Bonobo will be core desktop component for
future gnomes, it would be logical to share single adressbook system-wide via
bonobo. So gfax could certainly share code with evolution here.
2. The current gnome-print HEAD will migrate to gnome-print-admin library for
printer installation and configuration. It would be beneficial, if gfax would be
able to obtain/set configuration via it.

The idea of gnome-print-admin is to have single DOM-like configuration tree for
all printing related settings (page, paper, printer, transport).
Printer manufacturers (including gfax ;-)) can provide custom widgets for
configuration, so applications are able to build complex print setup dialogs
from different widgets, all co-operating via gnome-print-admin. Different components
do not have to know anything about configuration values, used by other components,
yet they can share the common ones (page size, resolution).

So the important future feature would be to provide a way, how gfax can integrate
with print admin stuff. There are several ways for doing that, depending on the
overall direction of gfax:
1. Via bonobo. Provide print + fax + configuration interface in gfax, and gnome-print
just invokes and configures it via bonobo.
2. command line. Provide full-featured set of options for determining fax properties
via command line, and gnome-print fax driver can translate gnome-print-admin values
to those and invoke gfax as it does now. In that case gnome-print fax driver has to
know all possible values for configuring fax.
3. command-line/bonobo/whatever, accepting xml stream with settings. gnome-print-admin
properties translate directly to xml, which can be delivered as stream to gfax. In that
case gnome-print fax driver does not have to have any knowledge about which values
are used for fax.

In all cases different set of fax configuration widgets would do good.

Best wishes,
Lauris Kaplinski

On 25 Feb 2001 21:02:55 -0800, George Farris wrote:
> Hi group,
> I'm the author / maintainer of Gfax the front end fax application that
> runs under GNOME.  I'm interested in better integration between
> gnome-print and Gfax and hope people here can fill me in on any news or
> information.
> 
> Someone sent me some email mentioning that someone was working on fax
> integration with gnome-print so I thought it was a good time to fire off
> a message and see whats cooking.
> 
> Just in case anyone hasn't heard of Gfax here is a list of features:
> 
> DESCRIPTION 
> 
> GFax is a front end fax program that performs the familiar pop-up fax
> manager when one prints to a fax printer. GFax works with all X
> programs that use lpr as the printer interface, even the command
> line.  
> 
> GFax has been tested with such programs as Wordperfect from Corel,
> Emacs, Nedit, Ghostscript, StarOffice, Gnumeric and Lyx to name a few.
> It should
> work with any application that prints using "lpr".  GFax relies
> on underlying fax transport software such as Mgetty+Sendfax or
> Hylafax to actually send the facsimiles.  This software must already
> be installed and setup on your system for GFax to work.
> 
> NOTE: 
> GFax dosen't actaully send the fax, it is up to the fax subsystem
> software such as mgetty+sendfax.  If you're having problems sending
> faxes make sure the fax subsystem works first.
> 
> FEATURES
> 
> o Pop up graphical window.
> o Standard lpr interface.
> o Multiple phone books.
> o Hylafax support.
> o Mgetty+Sendfax support.
> o Notification of sent fax to configurable email address.
> o Fax file from disk.
> o Delayed faxing.
> o On line help.
> o Network faxing with Hylafax.
> 
> o SANE scanner support (future).
> o Cover page support (future).
> 
> Fine out more at http://www.gmsys.com/gnome-gfax.html
> 
> 
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