OMNI Print Driver Model / News: Recent posts

- Fix from Tim Waugh (twaugh@redhat.com) on the Foomatic data
generation of the PageSize (Form) option.
- Fixes from Oswald Buddenhagen (ossi@kde.org) for autoconf support.
- Added sendBinaryDataToDevice and sendPrintfToDevice to DeviceBlitter and
DeviceInstance in order to remove all occurences of pDevice_d in every
device's blitter and instance code.
- More validation of omni XML files. Fixed OmniDevice.xsd.
- Fixed simulationRequired in Copies, NUps, Orientations, and Sides.
- Made a new library to hide which internal XML handling library that we use.
- Brought UPDF a little closer to working.
- Created Python version of the tool used to edit XML files. Switched to that
version to use for Omni. Now installing that version.
- Fixed CUPSToOmni not using different job properties on the command line.
- Added missing string translation for "PanelSelect".
- Fixed bug in PrinterCommand::appendCommand ().
- Fixed bug in OmniEpsonBlitter::translateKeyValue ().
- Foomatic fixes. Apparently for foomatic PPDs, the option name cannot be
longer than 24 characters and the choice name no longer than 32 characters.
MEDIA_BRIGHT_WHITE_INK_JET_PAPER -> MEDIA_BRIGHT_WHITE_INKJET_PAPER
MEDIA_PHOTOGRAPHIC_INK_JET_PAPER -> MEDIA_PHOTOGRAPHIC_INKJET_PAPER
MEDIA_PREMIUM_SEMIGLOSS_PHOTO_PAPER -> MEDIA_PREM_SEMIGLOSS_PHOTO_PAPER
NumberUpPresentationDirection -> NumberUpDirection
- Added new IBM devices "IBM Infoprint 1356J", "IBM Infoprint 1356J PAGES"
- Took in RedHat fixes for XMLParser, DeviceScaling, OmniPDCProxy
- Fixed na_govt-legal_8.00x10.00in misspelling in "IBM Infoprint 2085 Forms",
"Epson EPL-5700 Connections", "Epson EPL-N2000 Connections", and
"Epson EPL-N1600 Connections"
- Fixed buffer overflows in all bitmap dumping routines. Fixed other Beam
reported bugs.
- Fixed bug in "IBM 5577 Instance"

Notes:

Please uninstall any old versions of omni before installing this release. This new version of omni supports two (possible simultaneous) types of devices. The first is the old style compiled device library. The second is the new direct XML files.
If changes need to be made to a device, you only need to edit the corresponding XML file. You do not need to recompile omni.

Changelog:

- Omni has switched from compiled device support to XML device support!
(Although it still supports compiled devices)
- Omni is also in shutdown mode for a 1.0 release!
- Switched from DTD to XSD.
- removed using namespace std and switched to adding std:: prefixes.
- switched from char *'s to const char *'s.
- fixed/rearchitected the DeviceOption in devices.
- fixed trap in OmniFoomaticGenerator.
- added FORM_GERMAN_12_X_250_FANFOLD.
- brought test/ subdirectory up to date.

Omni provides support for many printers with a pluggable framework (easy to add devices). Device data is defined with XML with many different hook points for code support. Omni also supports many new printing standards. This release includes better integration with CUPS, bugfixes, and support for additional printer models.

- Provided better CUPS integration.
- More XMLDevice fixes.
- Unified jop properties specification on the command line. Now, all programs
specify job properties as -sproperties="..." on the command line.
- Moved foo2omni & foomaticDB in Foomatic/bin to Foomatic/share
- Moved /opt/Omni/data to /opt/Omni/share
- Initial debian package building support (thanks to rafael.espindola@ic.unicamp.br)
- Added the following new devices:
IBM 5577-H02
IBM 5584-G02
IBM 5584-H02
IBM 5584-K02
IBM 5584-K14
IBM 5585-H01
IBM 5586-H02
IBM 5587-H01_G01 Enh
IBM 5587-K02
IBM 5587-L02
IBM 5588-H02
IBM 5589-H01
IBM 5589-K20
IBM 5589-L36

- New Ghostscript patches!
Use old style C comments instead of C99 comments.
Improved error reporting on failed library loading.
- Autotools build fixes.
- Security fix: s/-dSAFER/-dPARANOIDSAFER/ for the GhostScript command
lines of Foomatic (OmniFoomaticGenerator).
- Fixed media insertion in HP LaserJet PCL Instance.cpp file.
- Added support for 10 new IBM laser printers:
IBM Network Printer 12
IBM Network Printer 17
IBM Network Printer 24
IBM Infoprint 20
IBM Infoprint 32
IBM Infoprint 40
IBM Infoprint 21
IBM Infoprint 70
IBM Infoprint 2085
IBM Infoprint 2105
- Fixed entity in Foomatic printer XML files.
- Fixed OmniFoomaticGenerator not making output directories.
- Fixed XMLDevice/Makefile.am install bug.
- Fixed everything linking with CUPS.
- Updated the Epson Blitter code to increase performance.
- Fixed the naming of libjobdialog to libomnijobdialog.
- Some backwards compatibility with ghostscript is supported.

- New ghostscript patch!
- Improved Foomatic printer entry generation for linuxprinting.org web
site: Mechanism type of printer cannot be determined, therefore nothing
instead of "inkjet" displayed, determined whether a printer is color or
monochrome instead of always displaying color, improved comment text,
added recommended driver field pointing to "omni"
(till.kamppeter@gmx.net).
- Removed trailing underscores from Foomatic IDs/filenames
(till.kamppeter@gmx.net).
- Writing printer names onto the screen durin the "Initializing
devices..." of the Foomatic generator, to have a progress display
(till.kamppeter@gmx.net).
- Removed inner classes because we cannot rely on gcc working.
- Resolved problems with ejecting a second page on a single page print
- Corrected the margin information in HP LaserJet 2100 Forms.xml for
the HP LaserJet 4050.
- Corrected PageSize issues with gomni.c (Ghostscript driver) with non-
default size forms.
- Updated CUPSToOmni support for tray, media, and dither parameters.
- Starting to add new job properties:
Copy
Collation
Destination
Stapling
Jogging
Duplex
Booklet
NUp
Scaling
- UPDF Fixes
- orientation: Listened to PageRotation & DeviceFeature
- duplex: Started it
- Fixed dither enumeration bug
- Memory leak cleanups in GplDither and GplCompression
- Fixed Ghostscript trap (seen in espgs-7.05.3)
- Added Epson PDC Blitter support for the following devices:
Stylus Color 980
Stylus Color 880
Stylus Color 777
Stylus Color 680
Stylus C70
Stylus C60
Stylus C40
Stylus C20
# Stylus Photo 810 Note: there is a bug in epson's code that prevents
# Stylus Photo 820 these devices from loading.
# Stylus Color 580
# Stylus Color 480
- Changed Foomatic to OmniFoomaticGenerator. This is now installed in the
/opt/Omni/bin directory. Changed the RPM builds to run this program when
installing and removed the prebuilt OmniXXXFoomaticXXX.rpm files.
Added a new /opt/Omni/data directory and installed foo2omni (was
Foomatic/bin/newDB) there.
- Added initial XMLDevice support (use XML files directly). It is not in the
main build yet. Read XMLDevice/Readme for more information.
- Updated Foomatic/bib/foo2omni file.

- Fixed the Ghostscript interface gomni.c. There are new patches for Ghostscript!
- We have switched to autotools as our build environment.
- Reported bug in gcc compiler (6316). The latest CVS release of gcc should build omni (thanks to RichardZidlicky@stud.informatik.uni-erlangen.de)
- Fixed gcc 3.1 build issues for streambuf assignments, CUPSToOmni.cpp, setit, and Omni.cpp (thanks to till.kamppeter@gmx.net and gbeauchesne@mandrakesoft.com)
- [Till] Fixed Foomatic handling of + in device names. Fixed small gcc 3.1 bug.
- Fixed the handling of command line arguments in ghostscript.
- Fixed the handling of -sPAPERSIZE= in ghostscript and foomatic (thanks to till.kamppeter@gmx.net)

- Added new DeviceString class to handle translateable Strings.
- Added getDeviceID () function to Orientation, Resolution, Form, Tray, Media, and PrintMode Device classes. Added the optional deviceID XML tag to those XML files.
- Trying to work on documention issues.
- Fixed the Ghostscript interface gomni.c. There are new patches for Ghostscript!
- Added install target to Makefile.
- Added RedHat directory which contains spec files for RPMs.
- rewrote UPDF to use XML file dynamically instead of converting to cpp files and compiling into a library.
- Added beta-level CUPS support!
- Added support for libxml2 (thanks to prowler@ig.com.br for spotting that)
- Added two new tools for omni: OmniDevices & OmniDeviceOptions. See docs/Usage for a description on how to use them.

- Fixed HP LaserJet 5L form size (thanks to jason@alteredminds.com)
- added new commands and cleaned up existing ones to Omni's
implementation of PDC for proposal to the freestandards.org group.
- fixed PluggableInstance and PluggableBlitter
- added 6 new medias
- Fixed gcc 3.0 build problems (thanks to twaugh@redhat.com)
To build with gcc 3.0 or later use this command:
make CFLAGS="-march=i386 -mcpu=i686 -Wall -DGCC_VER_3"
- JobDialog now part of the main build
- JobDialog fixes/improvements.
- improved string translation (MRI) handling
- refined/improved PDC support to version 5 of the document
- New Ghostscript patches (5.0, 6.51, 6.53, & 7.04).
You must use the latest version which is 021802 or above.

- Changed the default build to retail.
- Added initial support for a pluggable blitter class.
- Added 28 new HP LaserJet class devices.
- Added 21 new Brother LaserJet class devices.
- Added 12 new Epson LaserJet class devices.
- Added 45 new Kyocera LaserJet class devices.
- Fix capabilities bug in HP LaserJet devices (thanks to terry@beam.demon.co.uk)
- Merged Red Hat's patches back into Omni.

This release of the Omni printer drivers resolves concerns about the dynamic loading of the devices from the LD_LIBRARY_PATH and are now available to be loaded from the /opt/Omni/bin directory. We have also updated the Ghostscript patches for both 6.51 and 5.50.
Lastly we have introduced new code that allows Omni to be enabled to be used with Foomatic and the latest printconf.

The foils with notes of the pitch given during Linux World in San Fransisco at the Developer Habitat are placed in the Files section.

Please give feedback on the mailing list.

- Added 21 new Hewlett Packard LaserJets to the omni driver!
- Added an internal resolution to the DeviceResolution class so that a printer
that can support hardware scaling could be implemented.
- Added compressing RGB data to GplCompression.
- Moved the GplpGenerateGammaCurve function in GplDitherInstance to public.
- Converted the Steinburg algorithm from integer math to floating point math.
Added 6 color support and multi-bit support to the Steinburg algorithm.
- Added %f to PrintDevice::sendPrintfToDevice.
- Fixed bug in DeviceDither::getDitherCatagory.
- Updated Epson Stylus Photo 870, 875DC, & 1270 for 4 color support. Resolved
problems printed at 360 dpi in 4 colors on the 870 & 875DC.
- A lot more work was done for UPDF support.
- Added Device::getShortName () which returns the name of the file (minus the
lib and .so parts).
- Added DeviceXXX::getName (id) which returns the NLV translated name for a
form (without creating a new form object and querying that object). For
the following classes: Form, Tray, Media, PrintMode, Resolution, and
Orientation.
- Added DeviceXXX::isXXXSupported (id) that will query if an id is supported
for that device without having to create a new object of that id. For the
following classes: Form, Tray, Media, PrintMode, Resolution, and Orientation.
- Added prototype Foomatic support.

Highlights include:
Omni added initial support for the Printer Working Group's UPDF device files. For more information on UPDF, goto http://www.pwg.org/updf/
Also, omni switched from using the dl library to using the glib library.

The new release of the omni printer driver (0.2.0) supports the proposed InkJet printing architecture (IJS). See OmniIJSProxy.*, OmniServer.*, PrinterCommand.*, DeviceTester7.cpp, and DeviceTester8.cpp for implementation details.

See http://www.linuxprinting.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/inkjet-list for the discussion group.