A Suggestion for KDEPrint

[Michael Goffioul]

Hi guys,

I have some good news and bad news for you. :-)

Let's start with the good news:
1) there's already a command-line tool to monitor Epson printers,
    included in gimp-print, and called "escputil"
2) KDEPrint already includes a plugin mechanism that allows to easily
    build UI around existing command-line tools, of course this
    requires a little bit of coding, but this results in a nice
    integration of the utility into KDE printer manager
3) I demonstrated the use of such plugin mechanism on escputil,
    this means you can already monitors (locally connected) Epson
    printers from the KDE print manager

And now the bad news:
1) this is not available on KDE-2.2.2, you'll have to upgrade to
    3.x

Michael.

Till Kamppeter wrote:

> One should have something which allows plugging in arbitrary command 
> line tools, as escputil for Epson or ink 
> (http://home.arcor.de/markusheinz/ink.html) for HP. AFAIR is on the 
> MTink page (http://xwtools.automatix.de/ also a command line tool for 
> Canon inkjet printers.
> 
>    Till
> 
> Karl Scheel wrote:
> 
>> Greetings, KDEPrint Developers!
>>
>> A little more than one month ago, I tried to download the utility, 
>> /kepsontools/. However, when I tried to install it, I discovered that 
>> it was incompatible with my version of KDE (i.e., 2.2.2); it was the 
>> only version that was available from the download site, and required 
>> the older /Qt-1.2/ libraries. I tried contacting the author of this 
>> program directly after following a link from the download site to the 
>> author's own Web site to try to get an updated version. However, the 
>> author informed me that he is no longer involved with the project.
>>
>> /kepsontools/ is a utility that performs the following functions for 
>> Epson Stylus Color ink-jet printers:
>>
>>    1. monitoring the ink levels,
>>    2. cleaning the print head,
>>    3. aligning the print head,
>>    4. printing test pages.
>>
>> A similar utility has been taken for granted for several years by 
>> Windows users.
>>
>> The fact that this utility must rely on specific Qt libraries is in my 
>> opinion, ridiculous; it means that it must be rewritten with each 
>> release of a new KDE version, which occurs quite frequently. I would 
>> like to know if KDEPrint could be modified in the following manner:
>>
>>    1. Give it the ability to accommodate /kepsontools/ and similar
>>       utilities as plug-ins.
>>    2. Provide a simple, universal API for these utilities so that they
>>       are no longer directly dependant upon the Qt libraries.
>>    3. Let KDEPrint serve as the liaison between these utilities and the
>>       Qt libraries, so that compatibility is achieved regardless of the
>>       KDE version.
>>
>> Thank you very much for your consideration.
>>
>> Karl,
>> Toronto, Canada


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Michael Goffioul		IMEC-DESICS-MIRA
e-mail: goffioul at imec.be	(Mixed-Signal and RF Applications)
Tel:    +32/16/28-8510		Kapeldreef, 75
Fax:    +32/16/28-1515		3001 HEVERLEE, BELGIUM
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