Subject: Re: PWG> Austin Agenda

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 9 Feb 1998 17:09:40 -0500

That should be violent OBJECTIONS.  Violent objects will be later.

Don

To:   [email-masked], [email-masked],
      [email-masked],
      [email-masked]
cc:    (bcc: Don Wright)
bcc:  Don Wright
Subject:  PWG> Austin Agenda

I would like to proposed the UPD group meet on Tuesday evening.
Any violent objects?  Keith, can we have the room in the evening?
Thanks!
Don

---------------------- Forwarded by Don Wright on 02/09/98 04:52 PM
---------------------------

From: [email-masked] on 02/04/98 02:38 PM
To:   Don Wright@Lexmark
cc:   [email-masked]
bcc:
Subject:  Austin Agenda

Don, what about Universal Print Driver on the agenda?
>PWG MEETING AGENDA
>
>Here is the agenda proposed by Don Wright:
>
>Monday (3/2), Tuesday (3/3):
>  -- 1394 Printing
>Wednesday (3/4) AM:
>  -- PWG overview session
>  -- Discussion on NC Printing
>Wednesday (3/4) PM:
>  -- IPP
>Thursday (3/5):
>  -- IPP
>Friday (3/6):
>  -- Finisher
>  -- Job MIB Traps
I have in my PWG minutes (moments from issuing) that Paul was to provide a
sample (or spec) in prep for a discussion in Austin. Am I wrong? We could
try
to fit this in with PWG overview / NC Print or even squeeze it into Tuesday
for
those willing to endure the overlap with P1394.
Harry Lewis - IBM Printing Systems

---

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 16:57:01 -0500

As noted in the IPP minutes, Paul Moore presented the "Generic
Printer Driver" architecture that Microsoft is working on.  The group
felt that more time could be spent in this area to see if there was
interest in commenting on the GPD architecture and influencing
it.  Paul is supposed to be seeing if he can make the GPD documents
available outside the DDK for our review.  I hope Paul will
be able to attend the UPD meeting on Tuesday evening.

Don

---

From: Harry Lewis <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 17:15:47 -0500

In case anyone missed it...

>What topic(s) are driving the need for a meeting?  Can you give
>some sort of an overview or explanation as to why the meeting
>is being held?  (Or did I miss that in another message?)

here is an excerpt form the Maui PWG minutes regarding UPD... where it was
determined that there was enough interest in UPD to warrant more discussion.

Universal Print Driver

Microsoft has incorporated a technology, similar to the Postscript PPD, for
describing printer characteristics to drivers in NT5.0. They call it the GPD.
They already have support for about 1000 printers (including the NP12/17/24).
Microsoft is offering the GPD specification to the PWG for standardization and
potential  cross platform adoption. If this occurs, print driver development
could (hypothetically) be reduced to simply producing a PPD file for Postscript
and a GPD file for PCL. The topic will be discussed further in March and also
in a private meeting with Microsoft which I am hoping to achieve, here in
Boulder, during February.

Further - Paul Moorue reintroduced the idea of a Universal Printer Driver, this
time, based on Microsoft's GPD (Generic Printer Description) printer driver
syntax. This new driver technology for Windows uses a printer description file
like the Postscript PPD but applies it to any raster printer (PCL etc). The
result is one "universal" driver with many GPD files that enable the client
build the right PDL for each printer. About 1000 printers are already described
in this syntax on the NT5.0 Beta DDK. A GPD is about 30K bytes per printer.

The ASCII GPD file can express device options, limitations between features
(ex. "don't allow envelopes unless AUX tray is installed" or ("can't staple
if media is transparency") and may be used to dynamically build the print
driver UI. Settings can be grouped, for example, for the "fastest", or "highest
quality". Currently, the GPD is static or manually updated. A future
improvement could be to dynamically update the GPD from something like a
Printer MIB database, preferable using IPP.

Microsoft is offering the syntax as a model for standardization, beyond the
Windows platform. There was enough interest that an agenda item has been agreed
to for the March meeting in Austin. People would like an opportunity to look at
the spec prior to this meeting.  Concern was expressed that, in general, job
control should be migrated out of PDLs into the control of job submission
languages or protocols (like IPP, PJL or the Adobe Job Ticket). Some
participants were also concerned about loss of product differentiation if one
Universal Print Driver were to become ubiquitous. Others wondered if it would
be possible to structure the GPD in XML.