From kde-core-devel Fri Sep 14 21:46:28 2007 From: Thiago Macieira Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:46:28 +0000 To: kde-core-devel Subject: Re: KDE4 printing: results of IRC meeting Message-Id: <200709142346.29405.thiago () kde ! org> X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-core-devel&m=118980651820770 MIME-Version: 1 Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="--nextPart1792535.9mZBkPDKKe" --nextPart1792535.9mZBkPDKKe Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline Kurt Pfeifle wrote: >Thiago Macieira wrote: >> I think that if you want to have a PDF printer, configure your CUPS to >> do that. That's how you would do it in another OS. >First, you don't seem to know that kprinter's "Print to PDF"-support >does work completely independently from CUPS. And it has a dialog to >set up "driver parameters". You don't seem to know it. I know it's a virtual printer. CUPS doesn't know about it. It's easy to=20 tell because no non-KDE application sees them. So why is it a printer at all? If the KDE print dialog fakes it, maybe it=20 shouldn't be a printer. I can also bet that usability tests show that=20 people don't discover the "save as PDF" feature there. It's not possible in Qt 4.3, but another option we discussed is the=20 ability to add virtual printers: a printer name and a command to execute.=20 This should be enough for most cases of "send as email" and "send fax"=20 virtual printers. The function that instantiates and populates the=20 QPrintDialog in KDE, setting defaults and all, would add these printers.=20 So no functionality would be lost comparing KDE 3.5 to 4.1, in this area. Though, again, I think that's the wrong place to have them. So, yes, those features wouldn't be available for non-KDE applications. I=20 don't think it is KDE's job to fill in other applications' shortcomings.=20 Though, as a Troll, I do want Qt-based applications to kick a**, so if=20 supporting print-to-pdf out of the box in QPrintDialog is the way to do=20 it, so be it. >Second, why did you pick to only reply to one of the 4 examples I gave >you, when you asked to explain when the KDE print dialog was useful >for non-KDE applications? To avoid a huge quote for a 5-line reply. I selected the top, that's all. >Third, the beauty of it was that the PDF printer was just there, and >it "just worked". No need to "configure your CUPS" (and do *you* know >how to do that?, do most users know how to do that??). And "you would >do it in another OS" with lots of more pain before it would work. In >KDE3 it worked out of the box, independent of CUPS, or LPRng, or LPD >-- and you know want to advice users to configure their CUPS to do >it for them to replace functionality that KDE4 looses? No, I have no idea how to do it with CUPS. That says something about CUPS,= =20 not KDE. It would be the KCM's job to do that, though. KDE 4 wouldn't be losing the functionality anyways. The ability to export=20 as PDF, PS, send fax or email is still there. It's the non-KDE=20 applications that relied on kprinter to do its job that are losing=20 functionality. And, like someone else said in this thread, if you want to print a file,=20 you don't want kprinter -- you want a document viewer like Okular. >Fourth, why don't you advice me (or other users) to "configure your >computer to use a another OS" once there is a feature that you don't >want to support? That's a lame argument too. This is not what I said. I was merely comparing to other OSes. And I do think that a "PDF printer"=20 option belongs in the CUPS configuration so that all programs benefit=20 from it, not in the KDE client-side dialog. =2D-=20 =A0 Thiago Macieira =A0- =A0thiago (AT) macieira.info - thiago (AT) kde.org =A0 =A0 PGP/GPG: 0x6EF45358; fingerprint: =A0 =A0 E067 918B B660 DBD1 105C =A0966C 33F5 F005 6EF4 5358 --nextPart1792535.9mZBkPDKKe Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name=signature.asc Content-Description: This is a digitally signed message part. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQBG6wE1M/XwBW70U1gRAtFOAKCPwUH7cWqaI+ctFuDKUwITFV5FLQCgmUWx c7AFC/zGgXlAtm6GOUWTL/M= =yY2H -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --nextPart1792535.9mZBkPDKKe--