Re: Gtk+ print support - request for feedback

[Michael Sweet <mike easysw com>]

Alexander Larsson wrote:
> On Sat, 2006-03-04 at 12:27 -0500, Michael Sweet wrote:
>
> > ppd_text_to_utf8() leaks memory for UTF-8 encoded text - you can
> > set encoding to a constant string there, too!
>
> I don't see the leak. It just returns a strdup of the passed in text
> (which is supposed to be freed by callers).

OK, so then you'll crash when the caller tries to free the constant
strings you are returning?!?

> > I think you'll find the hardcoded option list approach to be a dead-end.
> > It works for basic/common options that you want on the main page, but
> > the "advanced" properties need to use something that isn't compiled in,
> > such as the UI group from the PPD file.
>
> What I do is:
> Some really common settings (like number of copies, collation, paper
> source, etc) are in the main pages. Then I put the rest of the settings
> into generated tabs. There are "Color", "Image Quality" and "Finishing"
> tabs, where we put setttings that we whitelist on the option name or
> group name (using well known names from existing ppds, and gtk-specific
> group names: "ColorPage", "ImageQualityPage", "FinishingPage"). The rest
> of the settings are put in an advanced tab that shows the settings
> grouped and indented by Group.
>
> We (will) also try to use our own translations for common Option names
> and values.
>
> This way we hope to get a slightly more consistent and easier to
> navigate UI, while still allowing all sorts of PPD options.
>
> > Don't limit the number of choices based on conflicts/constraints -
> > otherwise you WILL end up dead-locking users so they have no way to
> > access a particular option.
>
> The approach to conflicts is: Remove all choices that conflict with the
> default settings in the InstallableOptions group, since we don't show
> these options (that is up to the system configuration tool). For
> conflicts between normal settings we show a warning icon next to the
> conflicting settings and a warning text about conflicts in the dialog.

OK, sounds reasonable, but I predict that users will be asking why
they can't see those options... :)

--
______________________________________________________________________
Michael Sweet, Easy Software Products           mike at easysw dot com
Internet Printing and Publishing Software        http://www.easysw.com