[Printing-architecture] Another Common Dialog
Till Kamppeter
till.kamppeter at gmail.com
Fri Apr 17 13:55:43 PDT 2009
Hal V. Engel wrote:
> On Friday 17 April 2009 11:54:28 am peter sikking wrote:
>> Till wrote:
>>> peter sikking wrote:
>>>> for users printing, faxing, scanning, memory card reading are
>>>> totally unrelated activities.
>>> I would say so, too.
>> it is not just a good idea, it is the truth.
>>
>>> Sending faxes should be done by a print queue where the printing
>>> dialog shows an appropriate widget for the fax number.
>> even that is mind-boggling incomprehensible for users.
>> I will fight tooth and nail to avoid that solution.
>>
>
> I also agree with Peter here. A user sending a fax expects to see fax
> specific dialogs. Till however is correct that hidden below that fax specific
> UI could be a print queue but the user should NEVER be aware of how it is
> actually implemented.
So fax should look like this: On the implementation side we have print
queues for faxes, the PPD files of fax queues contain the following CUPS
extension:
*cupsFax: true
(see http://www.cups.org/documentation.php/doc-1.4/spec-ppd.html). This
allows distinguishing print queues and fax queues. Applications are
supposed to have a "Print ..." and a "Fax ..." entry. If a queue type
(printing, faxing) is not present, the corresponding menu entry gets
grayed out. Clicking "Print ..." gives the printing dialog as Peter has
designed it, but only print queues (and no fax queues) are listed.
Clicking "Fax ..." gives a dialog (slightly) different to Peter's
printing dialog, for example with an additional "zone" with one or more
widgets to choose the fax destination (by typing in, calling address
book, ...) and only the fax queues listed. The exact design for an ideal
fax dialog can also be left to OpenPrinting. WDYT?
Till
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