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From: Till Kamppeter <till.kamppeter@gmx.net>
Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2002 18:31:21 +0200
Subject: PPR: ANNOUNCEMENT: Foomatic 1.9 is out!
Last night I have uploaded Foomatic 1.9, a test version for the upcoming
Foomatic 2.0 to the Foomatic CVS
(http://www.linuxprinting.org/foomatic.html). It is also running on the
www.linuxprinting.org web site.
The main change is that now Foomatic does not require around ten Perl
libraries for XML handling any more. All XML handling is done by C
programs now which only need one library, the "libxml" which is part of
most GNU/Linux distributions. In addition the on-disk cache was
completely removed, because the system is so fast now, that one does not
perceive any advantage by the cache.
This gives the following advantages:
- - The installation of a local copy of Foomartic is much easier, one does
not need to install tons of Perl libraries any more.
- - Foomatic is faster (and probably also needs less memory). You see it
especially when surfing to the "GIMP-Print" driver database entry on
linuxprinting.org:
http://www.linuxprinting.org/show_driver.cgi?driver=gimp-print
It needed at least 30 seconds formally and often was not ready before
the browser timeout, now it works in well less than 10 seconds.
- - Due to no disk-cache being used any more, Foomatic takes up less disk
space and modifications in the database are immediately taken into
account, without needing to delete the cache. This makes Foomatic more
intuitive, transparent, and user-friendly. In addition
"foomatic-datafile" can be run from a non-root user account.
Other changes and fixes:
- - "foomatic-compiledb" is not filling up the cache any more (there is no
cache), but now it generates sets of datafiles for all printer/driver
combos (or a user-selected range of drivers) of a user-selected type
(PPDs, LPD-O-Matic/Direct-O-Matic config files, XMLs, ...). This can
also be done by non-root users.
- - Printer/driver combo XML files dropped in /etc/foomatic by
"foomatic-configure" have now the default settings of the options
correctly set, as configured for the appropriate printer queue. The XML
files are updated whenever something is modified on the queue. So
frontend programs can use these XML files to get the configuration of
the printer queue.
- - Sorting of options and choices works also with Perl 5.0x now
(especially on the www.linuxprinting.org web site).
- - Sorting of the choices od enumerated options has been improved,
especially of the resolutions.
- - foomatic-datafile and foomatic-compiledb are in /usr(/local)/bin now,
because they can be used by non-root users.
- - "Imageable Area" and "PaperDimension" entries in the PPD files for the
Avery/Dymo label printers is correct now.
- - Small clean-ups in the database so that it work correctly with libxml.
Planned features (not necessarily all for 2.0):
- - An autoconf/automake system as the second step to make the
installation of Foomatic easier.
- - Support for conflicts of option settings (as Duplex on transparencies).
- - Support for disabling/graying out/not showing an option in a GUI which
does not make sense because of the setting of another option
(Cyan/Magenta/Yellow adjustment when grayscale or bw printing is chosen).
- - Links to PPD/UPDF files in printer database entries, hosting PPD/UPDF
files (needs cooperation of printer manufacturers to put files under a
free license)
- - Automatic Foomatic data generation for Omni/UPDF dynamic config
generation, with links from printer entry with UPDF file.
- - C interface(s) to query local Foomatic database with APIs as discussed
in the FSG Open Print Workin Group. Using Foomatic database to plug in
legacy drivers in future spooler/driver/capabilities infrastructures.
Foomatic got the unofficial standard for printing system configuration
now, it is used in several GNU/Linux distributions (Mandrake, Red Hat,
Conectiva, Debian, and probably also others) and so we need help:
- - Even if I am full-time free software developer at MandrakeSoft in
Parus, my personal bandwidth is only finite and so it would be nice to
have some people to help on the development of the software, on entering
new printer models into the database, on helping people on the Forums,
and on documentation.
- - linuxprinting.org is accessed by 4000 people every day. Witb Foomatic
getting more known in the future, the server can get under a high load
and a failure of the server gets a big problem. Everyone who wants to
host a mirror is welcome. We also need a solution for handling the
Forums then.
- - Many people use Foomatic in their distro but do not know it. Foomatic
should really be made more known. This would also help us to find
developers and mirror sites.
All kinds of suggestions and help are welcome and thank you for all help
and contributions which we got already.
Till