Re: Is Redhat that bad - a question.
"Michael P. Soulier" <msoulier@storm.ca> writes:
> Hmm. As long as apps produce postscript or ASCII I've been
> fine. When they go non-standard then I have a problem.
How does a program find out what resolution your printer is?[1] How
does a program find out what fonts are built into your printer? How
does a program find out what paper trays and sizes are supported by
your printer? How does a program specify different paper trays?
And when we start getting into fonts[2] and printing, things get
really hairy. Unless you _like_ having to install fonts into every
program that has to print. Or apps like Netscape, which just give up
and hardcode metrics for the base PS fonts.
> There's some abstraction required, so that developers don't need to
> learn to output postscript, but isn't that what packages like
> gnome-print are for?
True. And gnome-print is addressing these things. As is WINE. As is
KDE. As are every program that don't use these toolkits....
> *shrug* Keep it simple.
Wouldn't you rather have something that was sufficient, instead of
something simple?
Currently, if you have minimal printing needs, the existing setup is
ok. If you have more complex needs, but chose from a subset of
printers and have chosen the right software from the mass that is out
there, the existing setup can be made to work (but it's not the
default... you have to work at it).
Fortunately, there are groups working on it, and they're even talking
to each other, so in a year or two we may have a decent print system.
But right now, printing on Linux sucks, and there's no arguing about
it. (I could go into more detail, but I'm hungry and need lunch.)
Footnotes:
[1] "It shouldn't care?" Then should all programs generate 2400 dpi
bitmaps for any bitmaps they generate because someone might have a
printer of that res?
[2] Another really huge area of suckage on Linux right now....
--
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - In a variety of flavors!
Cats are proof that eating and sleeping aren't all bad.
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