[Kde-print-devel] [Bug 82123] Printing odd/even pages with multiple pages per sheet gets silly results.

[Sander Bouwhuis]

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http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=82123         




------- Additional Comments From sanderb gmail com  2007-01-14 23:08 -------
Kurt,

Thanks for the extensive reply. I understand the points you are making, especially about the UI clutter of an additional button or checkbox. You need to understand that I filed the bug to help KDE function better with regard to my needs, and hopefully the needs of others too (which the popular vote in this case seems to confirm), and not to bitch and moan about how much kprinter sucks.

You see, since I filed this bug in May 2004, I've encountered this situation some more times and it kept annoying me. All in all I've probably thought about it for far longer than an hour as you suggested :) Each time however, my conclusion was that this was a bug, and not a feature request, and therefore would need fixing instead of adding. I'll address this below.

First, let me withdraw my comment about the additional button or checkbox. I was in a hurry and wanted to write something because this bug finally got a response other than a "me too!"-comment. Also, let me say that I appreciate the effort of the many developers and contributors of KDE (and its print system) a lot, especially those who investing their spare time in it.

Each time I encountered this situation, I came to the conclusion that I couldn't think of a single reason why someone would use the odd/even printing functionality *other* than the situation I described: duplex printing on a simplex printer (thanks for pointing out the correct terms, btw ;)
Now it's very possible that I've been too shortsighted, only thinking from my own perspective, but 2.5 years must say that at least it won't be a very common situation. I'm strengthened in this belief by your comment, in which you distinguish between the people-who-want-duplexprints-on-a-simplex-only-printer and the people-who-will-never-need-this-functionality-at-all, omitting the (possibly nonexistent) group of people who *need* the functionality as it is implemented now.

Therefore my proposal is simple. If we can agree on the assumption that the people who would appreciate the functionality as I proposed is far larger than the group of people who don't, the default behavior should be altered to be the most sensible. No UI changes, no additional clutter. I sincerely believe that this is the case, but please (anybody) go out of your way and prove me wrong.
If it turns out that there's a reasonably large group of people (or a reasonably common use-case) that would actually be harmed by a change in functionality, I will take your suggestion to heart and think about a sensible and non-intrusive UI improvement to implement this.

If changing the default behavior creates another usability problem due to consistency issues, I'd be fine to postpone this change to KDE4, and introduce it along with the other major changes that version will bring.

Please consider my proposal, I'm not trying to butcher kprinters usability, I'm trying to enhance it by providing a more sensible default. Also, since my proposal is *exactly* the same as in the original bug report, I once again propose to reopen.

Sander