[Foomatic] Contributing EPSON printer support/details

Till Kamppeter till.kamppeter at gmx.net
Fri Jun 11 06:22:03 PDT 2004


Olaf Meeuwissen wrote:
> Trying again, this time after subscribing to the list ;-)
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> I've been asked to check what would be the prefered way to contribute
> information about EPSON printers to the Foomatic database.  The main
> motivation for this is getting "official" support for EPSON printers
> included in all main distributions without a lot of hassle.  A major
> concern is (of course?) the validity of our test results in the face
> of changes to our contributions that are beyond our control.
> 
> FYI, EPSON KOWA Corporation already distributes the gs-lpd and pips
> packages as part of a contract with SEIKO EPSON Corporation.  I am not
> directly involved with either package, so please forgive any ignorance
> on my part in the printer area.
>

Note that on the linuxprinting.org web site we only list completely free 
drivers. For drivers which are not completely free (for example with 
closed-source parts) you should ship the Foomatic XML files and/or PPDs 
with your driver. Also for free drivers it would make sense to ship 
these files with the driver.


> Figuring I'd better do some homework first, I spent some time reading
> the web site and came up with three approaches.
> 
>   1) contribute something like foomatic-db-hpijs

That qould be great, then one can easily plug it into an existing 
Foomatic installation.

>   2) contribute a set of "official" printers to add to the DB
>      (so you would get two printer definitions for each model)

Having two entries for the same printer is not a good idea. It is rather 
confusing. Better is adding the info you can provide to the existing 
entries. Also the database IDs of the printers should not change, as 
drivers or links on web pages referring linuxprinting.org will break.

>   3) contribute patches against the current EPSON printers
> 

Yes, that is the right way. In general, all printer entries should be on 
linuxprinting.org, one for each model. Driver and option entries can be 
shipped with the driver, this way the driver comes always with the 
correct Foomatic data.

> I've pondered the pros and cons of each of these approaches already
> but would like to get some feedback from the community as to which
> approach you prefer and why.  Comments as to why a certain approach
> is no good and feedback on the value of vendor approved test results
> are welcome too.
> 
> Your input will be used to back up our arguments for the prefered way
> of going about this when discussing things with SEIKO EPSON.
> 
> Thanks in advance,

Thank you in advance for your contribution to the Foomatic database.

    Till



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