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Re: On IP addresses and bus tripe [was: CUPS - how to match autodetected printers to physical ones]



On Sat, Apr 09, 2022 at 12:47:09PM +0100, Brian wrote:
> On Sat 09 Apr 2022 at 08:33:31 +0200, tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, Apr 08, 2022 at 08:52:26PM +0100, Brian wrote:
> > 
> > [...]
> > 
> > > You didn't like my bus analogy, did you?
> > 
> > I did like it. Nevertheless, I thought something's missing:
> 
> In general, analogies don't really work, do they?

In a former life, I used to be physicist. We actually thrive from
analogies :)

[...]

> Setting up a queue in some circumstances may require knowledge of
> an IP address. Printing to it doesn't. The wrong path was taken.

That's, strictly speaking, right; in the OP's case, it'd been
helpful to finding the printed rag, though.

> > In the bus's case, perhaps there is a big sign on the parking lot
> > "NEUF-BRISACH". There, that's your IP address.
> > 
> > Back to the printers, I'm horrified at the idea that CUPS doesn't
> > tell you the IP address it thinks the printer is at. It's what
> > I call "authoritarian software", where the software thinks it's
> > smarter than me. Don't get me wrong, I like comfort like the next
> > guy, but I don't like being treated like an idiot.
> 
> What is important for printing is the queue name (the destination)
> an the URI. Cups will take care of all the nitty-gritty in getting
> the job to the printer. A card with the queue name would have saved
> much head scratching.

That didn't help the OP. To back out from analogy land, a piece of
software which makes available to me as much info as it can has
more of my sympathy. Doing it in a well-structured and discoverable
way gets it 100+ points of sympathy. I appreciate the designer's
hard work in this.
> 
> > Look: if some programmer gal thinks she's smarter than me, I go
> > "arrogant gal, but who knows, probably she's right". But if a
> > piece of software does that, I tend to kick it out of my box.
> > My box, my rules :)
> > 
> > And yes: no CUPS (no Avahi either) on my box :-)
> 
> Avahi is not mandatory for printing. However, it does benefit many
> users.

I know, I know. Before kicking out Avahi I looked into what it
does. It was a voluntary decision, which most definitely isn't
right for everyone.

> Plug in a mouse. It wors straightaway. Nobody gives it a secomd
> thought. Nowadays, plug in a modern printer to USB and, with Avahi,
> it is immediately available for printing. What is there to dislike?
> People have been asking for this level of operation for years.

Overgeneralisation works even less than analogies :)

Cheers
-- 
t

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