[kde-doc-english] branches/work/doc

[T.C. Hollingsworth]

On Mon, Feb 20, 2012 at 1:39 AM, Burkhard Lück <lueck at hube-lueck.de> wrote:
> Am Sonntag, 19. Februar 2012, 10:05:58 schrieb T.C. Hollingsworth:
>
>> On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 4:53 AM, Burkhard Lück <lueck at hube-lueck.de>
>> wrote:
>
>> > Great work, some comments:
>
>> >
>
>> > 1) How to add a locally connected USB Printer, an obviously very common
>
>> > task is missing in Adding a New Printer or Class chapter.
>
>> > The New Printer dialog window has no GUI option to select a connection
>
>> > type "USB". So Joe User will have a problem to add an USB Printer using
>
>> > this module.
>
>> > Afaik a locally connected USB Printer is automatically added the first
>
>> > time the printer is connected. Then a Notification is displayed about
>
>> > the new printer. No need to use this module for that task.
>
>>
>
>> Yup, USB printers should be automatically detected and set up by the
>
>> Printer Applet that runs automatically on login in most default KDE
>
>> setups, so Joe User shouldn't have to touch anything here if he
>
>> doesn't want to. ;-) (A note about this should definitely be added
>
>> though.)
>
>>
>
>> IIUC, I don't think it's possible to instruct users how to manually
>
>> add a USB printer, as the device URI is dependent on manufacturer.
>
>> (My printer has
>
>> 'hp:/usb/Photosmart_C4200_series?serial=CN75FF91TR04VP' for instance;
>
>> I assume your Epson would be completely different.) Though I wouldn't
>
>> be surprised in the slightest if it was just HP that is weird here,
>
>> and other printer manufacturers have a standard URI path. If someone
>
>> could tell me what that is I'd happily add it. ;-)
>
>>
>
> EPSON Stylus COLOR 3000: usb://EPSON/Stylus%20COLOR%203000
>
> EPSON Stylus SX110: usb://EPSON/Stylus%20SX110
>
> EPSON Stylus DX4400: usb://EPSON/Stylus%20DX4400

Hmm, I don't think we can safely write instructions for this.  I think
system-config-printer might be doing some magic behind the scenes to
make this work, and even if it didn't, there's too much that could go
wrong in manually typing this in (case sensitivity, getting the model
name string perfect, etc.).

IMHO if USB autodetection isn't working the appropriate course of
action would be to bug your distro's printing support maintainer(s).
;-)

>> > 2) It would be a valuable addition to explain the different connection
>
>> > types (AppSocket/HP JetDirekt, Internet Printing ipp, LPD/LPR, Windows
>
>> > Samba etc.) and their use cases (from the cups documentation?).
>
>>
>
>> I'll do this. Looks like I also need to fix the screenshot of this
>
>> page. (I take screenshots in a seperate user account so my custom
>
>> window style doesn't affect them, but I guess that account doesn't
>
>> have permission to touch CUPS stuff so the connection type list is
>
>> empty.)
>
>>
>
>> > 3) The content of Printer Options tab depends on the selected printer.
>
>> > E. g. cups-pdf has only 2 options, but an EPSON Stylus COLOR 3000 has
>
>> > around 100 options on this page.
>
>> > A Hint explaining the different content of this tab should be added.
>
>>
>
>> Any chance you were exaggerating here? Or is this distro-specific
>
>> too? The Stylus Color 3000 only has ~12 options on this page on my
>
>> system.
>
>>
>
> $ grep -c OpenUI /etc/cups/ppd/EPSON_Stylus_COLOR_3000.ppd
>
> $ 96
>
> Afaik these options are taken from the ppd file for the printer, so they are
> printer/driver specific.
>

% grep -c OpenUI /etc/cups/ppd/Stylus_Color_3000.ppd
14

Maybe I picked a different driver, or maybe different distros ship
different drivers.  Terrific.  :-/

>> At any rate, I guess I'll have to look at a bunch of different
>
>> printers and come up with a list of standard options here with a note
>
>> that this varies wildly by printer/system/phase of the moon.
>
>>
>
> Media Size, Print Quality, Media Type are the only common options for all
> printers (Brother HL-3040CN, EPSON Stylus COLOR 3000, EPSON Stylus SX110,
> Kyocera FS-1010, EPSON Stylus DX4400) here, except for cups-pdf, which only
> has Page Size + Output Resolution.

Cool, guess I'll just document these three + cups-pdf since a lot of
people probably have that.  (Oddly I don't, even though I see "Print
to PDF" listed as a printer in all KDE & GTK print dialogs.)

Maybe we could leave the rest in an "options present in random
printers members of the docs team happen to own" section??  ;-)

-T.C