[Printing-architecture] Proposals to LSB 4.0

TORATANI Yasumasa toratani.yasumasa at canon.co.jp
Wed Apr 9 19:50:42 PDT 2008


Hi Till and OpenPrinting Japan members,

When we had the OpenPrinting f2f meeting in Tokyo on Apr 3rd, 
we discussed the "Printing and the LSB 4.0" requirements.

Attendees at the meeting were;
Miyata (Avasys),
Olaf (Avasys),
Kanjo (BBR),
Otani (BBR),
Chigusa (Ricoh),
Ogasawara (Ricoh),
Saitoh (NEC Soft)
Mihara (FUJI XEROX),
Owa (FUJI XEROX),
Uoshima (FUJI XEROX),
Sekiguchi (Konica Minolta),
Toratani (Canon)
Kunai (The Linux Foundation),

And the results of the discussion were as following.
(To Japan side members: Please add/modify the comment above if you need)

- LSB 3.2 Printing specification defines "At least the following devices must be
present: cups (CUPS Raster), ijs, pxlmono, pxlcolor, and opvp (OpenPrinting Vector). "
http://refspecs.linux-foundation.org/LSB_3.2.0/LSB-Printing/LSB-Printing/gs.html
We believe that LSB 4.0 should be upper compatible with LSB 3.2, and LSB 4.0
should include all the above Ghostscript devices.

Additionally, we've defined the new OpenPrinting Vector specification and have
already developed and tested the new Ghostscript device "opvp" which is
*compatible* with the former "opvp". See page 3 and 4 of the slide;
https://www.linux-foundation.org/images/4/43/LFSummit-2008-OPWGJapanActivities-OPVP-Final.pdf
Same test suiete can be used for the new "opvp" testing, thus we believe
there is no problem that LSB 4.0 has the same definition as LSB 3.2 which
includes the Ghostscript "opvp" device.

On the other hand, if LSB 4.0 will define more detailed API of each devices,
including ijs, pxlmono, pxlcolor and opvp, we should consider when most Linux distros
will include Ghostscript which includes the new "opvp" device which is based
on the new OpenPrinting Vector API. We discussed this issue, and our conclusion
at the f2f meeting was, from the view point of the LSB 4.0 time schedule, a few
major Linux distros may include the new Ghostscript, but *not* enough time for
most distros, and thus, the detailed OpenPrinting Vector API will not be able to
be included in LSB 4.0.

- We still develop printer drivers which can work under CUPS 1.1 and 1.2 for
backward compatibility. We are glad if CUPS 1.2 will be included in LSB 4.0,
on the other hand, we do not have a strong requirement that LSB 4.0 should
include CUPS 1.2.

- We are not sure LSB 3.2 defines the "Path to store the PPD files".
If the path is not defined clearly in LSB 3.2, we strongly request that
LSB 4.0 should define it.

- For SANE, we worry about that the project roadmap of SANE.
Actually, we are preparing many drivers under SANE, however, we are not sure
SANE2 will replace the genuine SANE interface in the near future with keeping
the backward compatibility. If the new SANE interface will not keep the
compatibility with today's SANE, and if most Linux distro will switch from
today's SANE to the new SANE and will not support today's SANE in the near
future, from the view point of LSB backward compatibility, we should consider
to postpone to include the SANE in LSB 4.0.


Regards,

-----------------------------------------
TORATANI Yasumasa



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