[Printing-architecture] Automatic printer setup with Printer Applications

[Johannes Meixner]

Hello,

On 2021-02-24 13:48, Solomon Peachy wrote (excerpt):
> And as a depressing data point, Gutenprint only has
> IEEE1284 IDs for about 15% of its supported models, and
> USB VID/PIDs for about 3%.  So a mechanism to auto-match
> based on the Manufacturer & Model strings out of the USB
> or IEEE1284 descriptors would still be a good idea..

I had experienced in the past some overenthusiastic
"let's simply just collect printer IEEE1284 IDs" or
"let's simply just collect printer USB VID/PIDs"
attempts by overenthusiastic wishful-thinkers
that appeared every now and then but never ever it
resulted really useful data - only duplicates for
well know printer devices like some HP LaserJets
but basically nothing for all those zillions of
printer devices that manufacturers continuously spill out
and unexperienced end-users "just buy" in the next shop.

I took me some longer time of experience what works
reasonably well in practice out there in real world
how to auto-match based on the manufacturer & model
strings which is the only data that is always there.

So a 90% working auto-match based on the manufacturer & model
works in 90% of the cases in practice out there in real world
while a 100% working auto-match based on IEEE1284 IDs or
USB VID/PIDs works only in less than about 20% of the
cases in practice out there in real world.

My auto-match based on the manufacturer & model strings
is in SUSE's YaST2 printer module in somewhat human readable
form only in my old YCP code (the new autogenerated Ruby code
is no longer actually human readable - at least not for me).

I could try to dig that out but I fear what comes out is a pile
of hacks that I just somehow put together to make that stuff
work reasonably well in practice out there in real world.


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner
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