From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: George Michaelson To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu Cc: cross@math.psu.edu Subject: Re: [9fans] The new ridiculous license Message-Id: <20030620115233.3dc850df.ggm@apnic.net> In-Reply-To: <200306192319.h5JNJ1707171@augusta.math.psu.edu> References: <200306192319.h5JNJ1707171@augusta.math.psu.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 11:52:33 +1000 Topicbox-Message-UUID: d1fe56be-eacb-11e9-9e20-41e7f4b1d025 On Thu, 19 Jun 2003 19:19:01 -0400 Dan Cross wrote: > > > - 'lpr' protocol > > > > What's wrong with lpr? I know there's better, but what's *wrong* with it? > > In all seriousness; jokes, flames, etc aside. It's become clear (to > me, at least) that that's a very complex question to answer > adequately. There's no clear, universal definition of what `wrong' > means: it could be technical, philosophical, political, etc. What type > of answer are you looking for? I'd say the problems with lpr are > mostly technical; it's an antequated protocol that's more complex than > it needs to be, and the protocol definition (in the RFC) is really a > distillation of the protocol in the Berkeley lpr implementation. > > - Dan C. "On the other hand..." speaking as a (l)user, and sometime sysadmin, I have almost never had a /etc/printcap -> lpr -> problem I couldn't fix simply. But the twisted train-wreck of filesytem-embedded pipes, sockets, binary loaded files, non-optional filters, definitions files, logs which is SysV printing control is even worse. CUPS is silly. The problem is really with PRINTERS. people never quite got used to the idea of write-only devices. Printers have to 'chatter' and also have to be slapped around a bit to do things like [fold|spindle|mutilate] or optional headers, or meta-state like "load font" or other crap. If thats taken out of the print spooler path, it can get much simpler. Does anybody remember the piano-device to sit on an IBM golfball, and make it a printer? -george -- George Michaelson | APNIC Email: ggm@apnic.net | PO Box 2131 Milton QLD 4064 Phone: +61 7 3367 0490 | Australia Fax: +61 7 3367 0482 | http://www.apnic.net