Bug#908500: cups-browsed: Please consider making cups-browsed a Suggests:

[Brian Potkin <claremont102@gmail.com>]

On Thu 13 Dec 2018 at 20:04:31 +0100, Till Kamppeter wrote:

[...]

> To solve all the problems with the print dialogs I have started the Common
> Print Dialog Backends project in 2017. If Debian adopts it we will at some
> time really be able to work without cups-browsed.
> 
> See
> 
> https://github.com/OpenPrinting/cpdb-libs
> https://github.com/OpenPrinting/cpdb-backend-cups
> https://github.com/OpenPrinting/cpdb-backend-gcp
> https://github.com/OpenPrinting/cpdb-backend-file
> 
> and
> 
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=911335
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=911340
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=911342
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=911345
> 
> These will centralize the communication with the print systems so that the
> print dialogs do not need to do this and do not need to be adapted to every
> change in print technology.

A CPD certainly looks like a good way forward. Meanwhile, I'll record
what I observe as the present situation with print dialogs using
GTK3 (libgtk-3-0), Qt (libqt5printsupport5 ) and LibreOffice.

Firefox 102.1.0esr
------------------

1. Opening "Print using the system dialog..." sees the network printers
   enumerated.
2. Selecting an entry leads to the formation of a temporary queue and
   the appearance of printer attributes in the dialog.
3. While the dialog is open, the temporary queue is restablished every
   minute, as shown by 'lpstat -a'.
4. After printing, the temporary queue takes about a minute to disappear.
5. Verdict: 10/10.


Okular 4:22.04.3-1
------------------

1. Opening the print dialog sees the network printers enumerated.
2. Selecting an entry does not lead to the formation of a temporary
   queue.
3. Printer attributes do not appear in the dialog. Under Options/Options
   Duplex-capableprinters are not recorded as such and Print Quality is
   absent from Properties/Advanced (the tab is greyed out).
4. Print and the printer attributes become available via the formation
   of a temporary queue. But re-open the dialog within a minute to gain
   access to the queue!
5. Verdict: 1/10.


Libreoffice 1:7.4.0~rc3-1
-------------------------

1. Opening the print dialog sees the network printers enumerated.
2. Selecting an entry does not lead to the formation of a temporary
   queue.
3. Printer attributes do not appear in the dialog. Page sizes bear little
   relationship to reality, there is a pretend option for printing in
   duplex and Print Qualty is nowhere to be seen.
4. Print and the printer attributes become available via the formation
   of a temporary queue that lasts a minute. But a twist on Qt! Attributs
   are kept in memory and only disappear when Libreoffice is closed.
5. Verdict: 3/10 (for ingenuity).


That's on Debian. Maybe things are different elsewhere.

Cheers,

Brian.