Re: printtool in Debian

[Erik Steffl <steffl@bigfoot.com>]

Michael Neuffer wrote:
> 
> Quoting Erik Steffl (steffl@bigfoot.com):
> > Michael Neuffer wrote:
> > > Quoting Erik Steffl (steffl@bigfoot.com):
> > > > > 2. It lacks a "printer chooser" graphical frontent. The normal
> > > > >    user (imagine your mother setting up a new printer for it)
> > > > >    doesn't want to be bothered with the tasks currently needed
> > > > >    to set up a new printer. We would need the printer definitions
> > > > >    package from linuxprinting.org for example.
> > > >
> > > >   you can set-up new printer using web interface, it's quite simple, you
> > > > just pick from menus... or do you mean something else?
> > >
> > > Yes, the backend for that is missing. Look at how easy it is
> > > under Windows. Thas must be our goal.
> >
> >   well, setting up the new printer is fairly easy (using cups) but
> > adding a new printer driver is not - is that what you mean?
> 
> Yes. (I do use cups)
> 
> > it would be
> > nice if you were able to install cups and then simply apt-get install
> > cups-driver-hp930c or something like that. IMO not all driver should be
> > installed - that a waste of space.
> 
> I'm not so sure about that. They could be stored in an gziped archive.
> It shouldn't use up too much disk space.
> 
> Adding another _couple thousand_ debian packages just for printer
> drivers would be sheer madness.

  yes, that's why I think there should be some control over which parts
of package are installed. haven't thought about it much, I just think
there's need for that... (oh well, if there was a need somebody would
have implemented it, right? :-)

> 
> >   btw the same goes for other packages - it would be nice if the
> > packages would be configurable in a way so that I can say which parts of
> > package are installed - for example I cannot get rid of gless because
> > it's part of gnome-utils which contains some generally usefull stuff for
> > gnome. yes, I know rm command but when I update the system it would be
> > added again (AFAIK).
> 
> No, I think this is only remotely related. With the printer drivers
> one could have a list available and pull the necessary files out of
> an archive on your _local_ disk unter /usr/share/printerdrivers
> or something similar.

  it's not only related it's the same issue, there are quite a few
packages that install many programs/files that are related but
completely independent. in lot of cases it would make sense for a user
to have control what exactly is installed. just like the individual
gnome utilities in gnome-utils are independent programs the printer
drivers are independent as well. yes, the disk space is cheap nowadays
but that's no excuse for having sloppy design - I think that's one of
the reason it's hard to install a new driver - the printing system is
seen as a whole (programs and drivers, one mess, see for example what
gimp-print does when it's adding new drivers, it's not pretty), as you
said even MS doesn't do that.

	erik