Date:  Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:04:09 -0400
From:  madodel <madodel at ptdprolog.net>
Subject:  [VOICENWS] SW: Why CUPS is important to eComStation's future and why I should test it

++ From the VOICE OS/2-eCS News Service   http://www.os2voice.org ++

From: Paul Smedley <paulDESPAM at DESPAMsmedley.id.au>

Hi All,

So far I've received only a handful of reports on people's experiences with 
CUPS on OS/2 which I find somewhat surprising and frustrating given how 
critical this is to making our beloved platform viable into the future in 
terms of printing support.

I thought I'd try and answer a few questions that i'm guessing people might 
have.

What is CUPS? Cups Is basically a framework that translates postscript data 
into a printers native format using Gutenprint and Ghostscript then sends 
it to the printer. It is the printing system used on Mac OSX and most linux 
distros.  [Moderator note: CUPS is so important to Apple that they actually 
bought the rights to it and not only pay to maintain it now, but have kept 
it open source.]

Why is it important for OS/2? IBM used to update the omni drivers to 
support 'consumer' types printers but these updates stopped some years ago.
it is now near impossible to find an affordable printer that will work with 
OS/2 or eCS.

Can I print from native applications? Not yet! But this will be the next 
focus once the foundation has proven to be solid.

Why do I need to print using a lpd port when my printer used usb? Printing 
directly to a usb printer is planned - this will most likely happen after 
printing from OS/2 apps is working as its really not that hard to install lpd.

Why should I test when it doesn't even let me print yet? firstly, it helps 
validate that the framework works on a range of systems and printers. 
Secondly, providing feedback helps let the people working on the project 
know that people are interested and provides encouragement to continue 
working on the project.

Thanks in advance,

Paul.



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