HELP WANTED: kdeprint with GNUlpr

[Goffioul Michael]

> I'm just blabbing on about the theory that it might be better 
> if this information wasn't 
> embedded in the PPD.  I wouldn't reinvent the wheel, but it 
> is always possible to think 
> about improving things.  Those Rubber tires sure are better 
> than the Iron ones that my 
> ancestors used to put on wheels.  Have you ever looked at 
> LibAPPS.  It is so simple that I 
> have told newbies how to modify their configuration files.  
> Note: WordPerfect Office 2000 
> for Linux uses it (Corel WINE uses it).

I have the *strong* impression that libAPS is similar in
concept to Foomatic: abstracting the low-level print spooler
actually used. The major difference from my point of view is
that Foomatic doesn't provide any API, it's a stand-alone
system. OTOH Foomatic is completely PPD-based, such that any
client able to parse PPD files can use it, no specific API
is required.
In it's design, Foomatic also separates printers from drivers,
and has a DB to make the relation between printers, drivers
and option sets. But when you create a print queue, this
relation is fixed and "saved" into a PPD file that any client
can use without going through Foomatic itself. Of course, I
guess you could still keep information separated, but IMO this
makes things more complicated for the client that has to parse
several files, maybe using different syntaxes, and so on.
I agree that a problem may arise when your printer is not in
the DB (Foomatic or libAPS). I don't know libAPS, and maybe it's
easier to change, but I guess this could also be the same for
Foomatic (maybe through a user-friendly tool, as suggested).

And of course, libAPS is dead, Foomatic is not. And I wound't
bet on any Linux support from Corel... :-)

Michael.