[Xprint] FW: Adding Xprint to LSB

[Julien Lafon]

On Oct 20, 2004 2:30 PM, anderson at freestandards.org
<anderson at freestandards.org> wrote:
> On Wed, 20 Oct 2004, Julien Lafon wrote:
> 
> > > Added comment from Stuart:
> > >
> > > I think there is even a spec already in place. Still
> > > need tests.
> > >
> > > There is some debate over wether it is really best practice or not.
> > What does Stuart mean with `it' in this case?
> 
> 'It' is refering to Xprint.
> 
> I was raising the question as to wether Xprint is really used as the de facto
> printing model everywhere. I know a couple of things like Mozilla use it,
> but I'm not sure if the majority of the desktop applications are using it
> or not.
'Xprint' is not the de facto printing model everywhere as in Linux
printing is Postscript/CUPS centric while Xprint lives far above both,
abstracting spooler access and rendering model to a level where
applications are independent from the spooler and independent from the
rendering model (so far X core protocol, Postscript/EPS/PCL, XRender
and OpenGL are supported for rendering).

> 
> Ideally, what the LSB would like to adopt is the one de facto printing
> model that is used by just about everything, wether that is Xprint or
> not. First thing to do, is to decide if such a thing like this even
> exists yet.
As I have outlined there is no de facto printing model (except for
OpenGL applications where Xprint is now the de facto standard),
however Xprint provides a path to implement printing in applications
in a way which is upward compatible to whatever the future brings -
the application only has to implement Xprint support and the Xprint
server takes the burden of implementing newer printing standards.

> 
> Xprint also has the characteristic that it is a part of the X Window
> System, and as such could be brought into the Desktop module anyway.
Xprint may also be added to the OpenGL module (if there is such a
thing) as it has itself established quickly as the de facto standard
for printing using the OpenGL rendering model.

Julien
-- 
Julien Lafon
Senior Staff Engineer, Hitachi