From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: From: Josef Spillner Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 11:58:27 +0200 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200608281158.32769.spillner@kde.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: [Printing-architecture] Printer dialog generation List-Id: Printing architecture under linux List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , To: printing-architecture@lists.freestandards.org Hello, a few weeks ago I talked to some people about the possibility of having print dialogs generated from a formal schema and some GUI generation hints. [I hope this is the correct list for such topics.] I'm involved with research in this area, particularly in ad-hoc usage of web services, but most of the concepts apply to any schema-based GUI generation. A schema in the world of printing would be a data model which includes choices about the paper size, printer capabilities and document-specific options. Creating type-safe dialogs which represent the schema are not an issue, there are proven concepts and we have work in progress code for KDE, for example. However, creating GUIs which follow HCI standards and are at least basically usable is a challenge. Layouting algorithms in particular are not well explored yet and almost always need human correction. As someone not coming from the world of printers, I find PPD files slightly weird, to put it mildly. They contain both information about printers and interaction code akin to an embedded programming language. However, they seem to contain all the necessary information needed for user configuration, especially multi-language strings. Now there are a few questions to those who could help: * What are the issues with current print dialogs that could or should be solved with GUI generation? * Are there other printer description formats I should have a look at? * Is there any work being done in this area already? Josef