Subject: libpaper 1.0 on master

From: Yves Arrouye <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 13 Aug 1996 20:19:21 +0200

Please do not use 0.* versions anymore.

The next release (1.0-1) will have a paperconfig paper configuration
script instead of having /etc/papersize as a conffile.

Yves.

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Date: 13 Aug 96 17:16 UT
Format: 1.6
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: Low
Maintainer: Yves Arrouye <[email-masked]>
Source: libpaper
Version: 1.0-1
Binary:  libpaper
Architecture:  i386 source
Description: 
 libpaper: Library for handling paper characteristics
Changes:
 * abstract interface (struct paper hidden) so that future changes
 can be made safely.
 * stores dimensions as double, still in PS points.
Files:
 6b55151261dc94a835e7581fa4c894dc  55776  text  -  libpaper_1.0-1.tar.gz
 7d7feddde35dcf7f83a6096097ebc997  25340  text  optional  libpaper_1.0-1_i386.deb

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From: Dan Stromberg <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 18:30:07 -0700

Shouldn't the "paper size" be an attribute of a print queue, and not an
attribute of a machine?

Yves Arrouye wrote:
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From: Richard Kaszeta <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 22:02:33 -0500

>Shouldn't the "paper size" be an attribute of a print queue, and not an

Paper size effect more that just printers.  Previewers and tex tools
come to mind, there may be others...

All I know is right now I've got to tweak quite a few things on a
standard debian 1.1 system so that dvips, xdvi, genscript, and a few
other programs work well and have the same idea of a default paper
size.

-- 
Richard W Kaszeta 			Graduate Student/Sysadmin
[email-masked]			University of MN, ME Dept
http://www.menet.umn.edu/~kaszeta

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From: [email-masked] (joost witteveen)
Date: Fri, 16 Aug 1996 10:14:27 +0200 (MET DST)

> >Shouldn't the "paper size" be an attribute of a print queue, and not an

Well, it could be argued that Yvess libppaper could look at
the current $PRINTER setting, and select the correct papersize
depending on the /etc/papersize.printer file or something. But
at the moment not very many programmes use libpaper or /etc/papersize,
so it's better to have them at least get to recognise a global
/etc/papersize than nothing.

> other programs work well and have the same idea of a default paper

Well, after you've done the tweaking, maybe it's worth the little
extra efford of mailing the patches to the maintainer/bug-system
and wait to see them included in the next release?
If you don't want to do that, could you send your patches to me,
so that try to handle it?

Thanks,

-- 
joost witteveen
            [email-masked]
          [email-masked]
--
Use Debian/GNU Linux!

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From: Dan Stromberg <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 11:09:15 -0700

Storing one thing in one place is an excellent goal.

Treating multiple things as tho they were one thing (EG "all printers
use the same paper) can be troublesome.

Ideal: keep the option of an /etc/papersize, but allow a user to
override /etc/papersize if desired, thru ~/papersize or environment
variables.

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From: Yves Arrouye <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 23:36:36 +0200 (MET DST)

Yves Arrouye                         Email : [email-masked]
7, avenue Leon Bollee               Web : http://www.fdn.fr/~yarrouye/
75013 Paris                                    Work : +33 53 61 09 55
France                                         Home : +33 45 95 64 59

> override /etc/papersize if desired, thru ~/papersize or environment

That's what libpaper does: use whatever paper size is in the PAPER env
var, or if empty whatever name found in the file whose name is in the
PAPERSIZE env var, or if this var is empty too look in /etc/papersize,
defaulting to letter (sigh).

Yves.

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From: Dan Stromberg <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1996 16:34:02 -0700

> /etc/papersize than nothing.

Yup, sometimes something is better than nothing.  Then again, sometimes
"something part way" makes it harder to get to "all the way" too.

If you make it queue-specific, it might be best to add it into
/etc/printcap (as opposed to /etc/papersize.queuename).  There is
precedent for this (with at least one printer I've set up), and it's
discussed in at least one popular book about system administration (by
Evi Nemeth, under the name "printcap extensions").  BTW, this book lies
thru it's teeth about Solaris 2.x, 

Parsing /etc/printcap is a simple matter - 20 lines of /bin/sh, or
pgetent in the lpd source.

An external library, such as libpaper.*, is precisely the right place to
put such a thing.  AS long as it has a good'n'general interface, the
long-term nice-scenario get here eventually.

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From: [email-masked] (Bruce Perens)
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 96 12:13 PDT

I haven't been following the discussion (sorry!). Please present me with
a proposal, and counter-proposals if necessary.

	Thanks

	Bruce

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From: [email-masked] (Bruce Perens)
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 96 12:13 PDT

Never mind. Wrong message.

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From: Ian Jackson <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 24 Aug 96 18:42 BST

Yves Arrouye writes ("Re: libpaper 1.0 on master"):
...
> defaulting to letter (sigh).

Would it be possible to rename this variable PAPERCONF, to correspond
to the new name of the program ?

It seems to me that having an environment variable PAPER is asking for
trouble.

Ian "campaign against namespace pollution" Jackson.