Re: [hpoj-devel] PSC 2355

[Johannes M. <js...@su...>]

Hello,

On Jan 15 02:19 Till Kamppeter wrote:
> Cory, I think dropping parallel port support is a bad idea.
> 
> As printing maintainer of the Mandrakelinux distribution I also wish that
> HPLIP replaces HPOJ COMPLETELY, so that I can take HPOJ from the distro as
> soon as possible. I want to avoid having unmaintained software in the distro
> and there should also not be two packages fulfilling the same purpose. Also
> printerdrake gets big an cluttered if it has to take into account so many
> different methods of printer setup.
> 
> I also want to let HP's print-only devices print through HPLIP, so that one
> can use the inkjet maintenance functions of the toolbox. Nozzle cleaning and
> ink level checking would get very expensive if one has to by an HP JetDirect
> box for ones parallel printers.
> 
> We cannot declare the parallel port as obsolete. Many of our customers still
> have parallel-port HP inkjet or multi-function printers.

Exactly the same is true for SUSE (and I guess for all other
distributors too).

Additionally:
It is no real solution to have both HPOJ and HPLIP installed to
have parallel port support via HPOJ because both cannot run at
the same time.
It doesn't work if a user has an old parallel port device (which
needs HPOJ) and a new USB device (which needs HPLIP).

I think there schould be at least a generic parallel port support
in HPLIP (perhaps by omitting some inkjet maintenance functions
if this functions are complicated to be implemented for some old
parallel port devices).
The crucial point is that after switching to HPLIP no functionality
which was present before in HPIJS+HPOJ is lost.
If this is not possible I would appreciate it if the reason is
explained in the documentation because otherwise the users may
become really upset if known functionality is no longer present
without any reason.


Regards,
Johannes Meixner
-- 
SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5      Mail: js...@su...
90409 Nuernberg, Germany                    WWW: http://www.suse.de/