HELP WANTED: kdeprint with GNUlpr

[Till Kamppeter]

James Richard Tyrer wrote:
> General additional comments.
> 
> The LPR and LPRng is supposed to be in the same module.  So, this isn't 
> an GNUlpr only effort.  But, I was going to see if I could get GNUlpr 
> working first.  I will reconsider this.
> 
> I originally rejected LPRng because it appeared to be a RedHat project 
> and I couldn't get it to work with my system.  However, now RedHat has 
> dropped it -- and I assumed that it too would be dead.  But, I will look 
> at it.
>

LPRng is as independent of Red Hat as CUPS. Red hat has used these 
spoolers, but they didn´t develop on them.

> I have problems with CUPS: It is semi-proprietary

As Kurt said, CUPS is free software. Only under this condition all Linux 
distros can use it as the standard spooler. All software on downloadable 
CDs of Linux distros is free software, at least for Red Hat, Mandrake, 
Conectiva, and Debian. And they all use CUPS as printer spooler.

> and it won't print 
> PostScript data that doesn't have the fonts embedded.

Probably your configuration of ESP GhostScript is not correct. Please 
post in the newsgroups/mailing lists of http://www.cups.org/ for help.

> This was simple 
> to fix in GNUlpr -- a few lines added to a script.  Although Craig 
> Drummond says that he has fixed this with CUPS if you use FooMatic.

Can you give me that fix? I like to see what Craig did.

> We 
> are free to fork LPR but we can't really change CUPS.
> 

CUPS is free software, you can change it. If Mike Sweet does not accept 
your patches, you can publish them on your own, either only the patches 
or a readily patched CUPS. The GPL only requires you to publish with 
sources and to publish all under the GPL again.

> GNUlpr does have support for PPD files and this could be integrated into 
> KDE.

The PPD support code is very old CUPS code, are you sure that it is 
really compatible with all current PPDs?

> I don't use FooMatic because it isn't necessary unless you use 
> CUPS (where it is used to replace the proprietary printer drivers).  If 
> there is something that FooMatic can provide to LPR based print systems, 
> someone please educate me.

Foomatic gives the same benefits for ALL spoolers (CUPS, LPRng, LPD, 
GNUlpr, PPR, PDQ, CPS, spooler-less printing):

- Databse with more than 1100 printers and more than 240 drivers.
- Complete Adobe-compliant PPD support
- Absolutely Adobe-compliant PPDs for all known GhostScript drivers
- PPDs can be used with OpenOffice.org, the GIMP, and for Point'n'Print 
on Windows clients with Samba and a PostScript driver for Windows.
- Access to all driver options on a per-job basis for the user, not only 
on a default-setting basis for the admin, even with LPD flavours who do 
not support passing option settings along with a job.
- Usage of CUPS raster drivers with non-CUPS spoolers
- Option settings can be applied to selected pages
- Non-printable margin info for many printer-driver combos
- Paper input tray selection with many GhostScript drivers which do not 
support this natively
- PJL options (Economode and such) available for many printers
- Bugs in PostScript generated by OpenOffice.org are worked around
- Foomatic is the official driver/spooler integration system for many 
drivers (HPIJS from HP, GIMP-Print, foo2zjs, Epson EPL L-Series drivers, 
...)

> 
> So, I will have a look at the current LPRng project, install it and 
> consider if it would be better to simply use it and work on getting it 
> to work first.
> 

I have already done brief tests and it works nicely when used together 
with Foomatic. Interesting would be the integration of the bi-di 
features with ifhp into KDE Print.

    Till