LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: David Newall <davidn@rebel.net.au>
  To  : Linux SA <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2000 10:20:38 +1030

Re: Operating systems.

michael <michael@home.lyppard.com.au> wrote:
> I take have to disagree with you here Dan. I find the linux printing
> easier than Windows [...]  In linux, as long as I can
> get to/from postscript, I can usually print.

I think, perhaps, that that is exactly the point.  To draw a screen in
Windows you use GDI.  To draw the same image on a printer you also use GDI.
Every program can print using the same code that was needed to display on
screen.  The same holds true on Macintosh.  Under X this is not true.
Programs draw using X primitives, but are offered no assistance for
printing.  X programmers are faced with an important question: "Should I
support HP's PCL or not?"  And another question: "Should I support Epson's
EPS/2 or not?"  Then there's "Should I support Canon's IRS, and Tektronix's
TIL, and blah blah blah?"  We're *almost* at the point where PostScript
support (in programs) is ubiquitous.  Using ghostscript we *almost* have
universal printer support.  But note that programmers have to write twice as
much code: They have to write a large slab of code to display using X, then
they have to write another large slab of code to print using PS.  Then users
have to wander through a maze of configuration to find out how to tell their
application which type of printer they want to use (ie Epson, Canon, HP,
Tektronix, Star, and a gazillion others.)  Truly the issue of printing in X
applications is wickedly complicated for everyone.

I don't understand why somebody didn't write an X server for printers.  That
would permit you to display using X primitives drawn on localhost:0, and to
print using the same X primitives on localhost:1.  Or display on
wallscreen:0 and print on paperjam:0, which would be even better.  I think
we've missed an opportunity to do that because peopel seem to be settling on
PS, which means, as I pointed out before, writing twice as much code.
Idiots.

-- 
LinuxSA WWW: http://www.linuxsa.org.au/  IRC: #linuxsa on irc.linux.org.au
To unsubscribe from the LinuxSA list:
  mail linuxsa-request@linuxsa.org.au with "unsubscribe" as the subject