On 23-Jul-98 Perry E. Metzger spoke unto us all:
#  
#  I think the problem is that lpr may be evil, but it is the evil that
#  we know.
#  
#  I've often thought, btw, that the whole printing suite needed to be
#  burned down and replaced, including a from-scratch protocol
#  design. And no, the IPP stuff in the IETF is crap. (We keep trying to
#  point this out to them but they never listen. Someone with taste has
#  to build a new protocol.)

I think Perry is right here.. The problem with lpr/lpd is that it is based on
things that were true 20 years ago.  How many troff printers do you see around
these days?

Really slick would be to integrate ghostscript into something like this.  Ie:
bob plugs in his printer, tells the magic configuration tool that he has "A
GoofyJet 500+" and things pretty much just work.. he has a graphics and a text
port.  Maybe the graphics would just handle PS input..  probably the most
compatible way of doing it these days.

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Tim Rightnour    -  root@garbled.net
http://www.zynetwc.com/~garbled/garbled.html