Re: [gentoo-dev] Printer drivers and net-print

[Joshua Kinard <kumba@gentoo.org>]

On 12/17/2021 11:56, Andrew Savchenko wrote:
> On Fri, 17 Dec 2021 14:00:48 +0100 Andreas Sturmlechner wrote:
>> On Montag, 20. Februar 2017 22:47:17 CET Andreas K. Huettel wrote:
>>> Hey all,
>>>
>>> 1) Putting printer drivers into "net-print" is silly.
>>>
>>> Something that converts format a to device-specific format b has absolutely
>>> nothing to do with network.
>>> So, a new category "sys-print", emphasizing that it's hardware drivers, (or
>>> "cups-drv"?) (or maybe "media-print"?) might make sense.
>>>
>>> 2) After introducing that, however, "net-print" becomes nearly empty.
>>>
>>> On a quick glance, the only *network*-specific packages in there are cups
>>> and lprng. Maybe one or two more which I dont recognize.
>>>
>>> So move cups and lprng to "net-misc" and drop "net-print"?
>>> Or move them to new "sys-print" as well?
>>>
>>> What do you think?
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Andreas
>>
>> I would like to resume this discussion on the occasion of a new [shameless 
>> plug] package PAPPL that is to be packaged, see also [1], from the point 
>> before discussion went off on an X-Y categories tangent.
>>
>> Here's a list of suggestions made for a new category so far, ordered from 
>> (seemingly) best- to least-liked:
>>
>> media-print
>> sys-print
>> app-print(ing)
> 
> IMHO sys-print is the best variant, since printing often requires
> system privileges to set it up or change lots of settings.
> 
> Best regards,
> Andrew Savchenko

Maybe consider three new top-level categories?:
  - print-drivers
  - print-filters
  - print-misc


Breaking out what's in the current net-print:

print-drivers/
   brlaser
   cndrvcups-common-lb
   cndrvcups-lb
   cnrdrvcups-lb
   cups-windows
   dymo-cups-drivers
   epson-inkjet-printer-escpr
   foo2zjs
   gutenprint
   hplip
   hplip-plugin
   kyocera-1x2x-mfp-driver
   pnm2ppa
   splix

print-filters/
   apsfilter
   c2esp
   cnijfilter2
   cups-filters
   kyocera-mita-ppds
   lexmark-upd-ppd
   foomatic-db
   foomatic-db-engine
   foomatic-db-ppds

print-misc/
   cups
   cups-bjnp
   cups-pdf
   cups-pk-helper
   fax4cups
   gtklp
   ink
   libinklevel
   mtink
   npadmin
   poster
   sshlpr

I haven't looked at any of the other existing categories and only sorted out
net-print packages into these new proposed categories, but I think *most*
printing stuff is going to fall into one of those three type of buckets.  A
fourth category, say print-scanning, may be able to be created specific to
scanning stuff, since that kinda has its own side-ecosystem.  If we
accumulate enough printing-related libraries, I guess print-libs may also
come into being (right now, I put libinklevel under print-misc since it's
the only lib* standout).

Idea behind a new top-level print-* group of categories is that printing is
a fairly large ecosystem, and lumping it all into something like media-print
or sys-print seems to miss the mark a bit.  media-* seems more aligned to
things like sound, video, and graphics (the digital kind), and less about
print media.  sys-print implies the system-level connections that a printer
has, and would be a good fit for all of the printer driver packages, but not
as good a fit for things like net-print/poster.

Also, the HOMEPAGE for foo2zjs is dead and up for sale.  That needs to be
changed to:
https://github.com/koenkooi/foo2zjs

-- 
Joshua Kinard
Gentoo/MIPS
kumba@gentoo.org
rsa6144/5C63F4E3F5C6C943 2015-04-27
177C 1972 1FB8 F254 BAD0 3E72 5C63 F4E3 F5C6 C943

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