Bert Freudenberg <bert at isg.cs.uni-magdeburg.de> wrote:
> How about using CUPS, the Common Unix Printing System, which was just
> licensed by Apple (http://www.cups.org/)
> 
> The CUPS API is LGPL so would work fine with Squeak. Alternatively it 
> might be possible to write a CUPS client in Squeak as the protocol is HTTP 
> based.
> 
> Does anyone have experience with CUPS?
> 

I agree that if you want serious printing in Squeak, then writing either
a CUPS or LPD client (or both) makes a lot of sense.

However, I believe this misses the point of the print routines in
Squeak.  The point, as I understand, is that new users can easily print
out an image of their creations in Squeak.  For this use, setting up an
LPD or CUPS server is too much work if you don't happen to have one
already.

Similarly, I don't even know that we should get involved in printing for
more serious users.  Most serious Squeakers don't print, anyway -- the
point of Squeak in general is to make a new kind of medium that won't
even work on paper.  Even the occasional guy that will want to (e.g.
they're making a book), is very likely to also want to fiddle around
with it before printing it out.  E.g., they'll touch it up with
PhotoShop, or they'll inline it into a latex document.


Anyway, for those ignoring my crabbing--e.g. Squeak looks more like a
Smalltalk platform to you than a multimedia authoring environment--I use
CUPS regularly and can say that it works fine for me.  It's easier to
set up than either version of lpd I've tried.  The server handles a
variety of common formats, including PDF, PS, text, and various image
formats.  It's protocol is based on HTTP, but that's all I know about
it.


-Lex