Re: [Usability] Printing dialog in GNOME

[Till Kamppeter <till kamppeter gmx net>]

michael chang wrote:
>>I read often "Manual Duplex" in consumer printer advertizing. And that
>>means usually that the software coming with the printer has such a
>>manual duplex wizard. If we provide it from the OS or from the desktop,
>>we can say "Duplex on every printer, either manual or automatic".
> 
> 
> Well, I wouldn't go as far as "every printer" - some printers have no
> auto-duplex and they have closed paper feed trays.  Re feeding a sheet
> back in a machine that requires a complex tray-opening system would be
> annoying.  Although yes, technically, it would still be a manual
> duplex on that printer.
>

Some printers are really not suitable, like the small dye-sublimation
photo printers.

> *If* (and this is the big selling point) it can be made working, then
> I see nothing wrong with it as something extra.
> 

I think we only need to find enough manpower.

> 
> Of course, this goes against the 'it just works' philosophy - it would
> work if we could get it integrated into the printer's initial setup,
> preferably when installing the OS or something, if such a thing is
> necessary.
> 
> Or you can quasi-copy windows and pop up a window/balloon/message
> saying "Printer XYZ has been found and automatically detected.  Basic
> functionality is now available in most applications.  If you wish to
> use advanced features such as manual double-sided printing, please
> click on this balloon to start the 'Printer Setup Wizard'.".  [It's
> probably more flexible to do that then to try and catalogue all the
> duplexing behaviours of every single printer on the market now and in
> the 5-10 years to come that the exact same GNOME will be used on.]
> 

Do not require another database, but calibrating the wizard when setting
up the queue would be even greater, once the admin has set it up, it
just works for every user.

> Other issue is copyright - we'd have to make sure we weren't
> infringing on anything with this (I would imagine not, but...) --

Can it be that the principle of a manual duplex wizard is patented?

> the
> only reason I got this idea is because I remember some Windows
> applications didn't bother using whatever duplexing (if any) was
> provided by Windows (you could use it if you wanted, but it wasn't
> necessary) and they had their own internal manual duplexing system and
> wizard.  But that was on a per-application level, and I had a couple
> of those, so setting them all up the same way was kinda repetitive.
> 

Once having a system-wide wizard under Linux, application programmers do
not need to bother any more.

> 
> The idea is interesting.  Now the hard part: implementation.  But I
> don't have enough coding experience to do it myself. :( My
> understanding is GNOME is already ridden with ideas, at least to keep
> every developer busy for a few years. I'll have to remember to mark
> this one, just so I can check on it in a few years.
> 

Find some big funding to employ a lot of programmers.

   Till