Hello, On Nov 23 12:24 miso zugec wrote (shortened):
new yast2-printer is available in FACTORY, so you can test it now.
I dare to introduce competition ;-) I made an experimental YaST printer setup module, see http://idea.opensuse.org/content/ideas/usable-printer-setup-tool Currently idea.opensuse.org is in read-only mode so that I cannot update the info there and therefore some details are outdated. It is is a completely new design from scratch. To avoid misunderstandings: I make it only to get something which is executable instead of tons of ideas in tons of mails or tons of nice graphical "mockups" which nobody can really verify if any of those ideas does actually work and/or could actually be implemented. A printer setup tool depends on what the printing system supports. For example "there is no printer in the printing system", see http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-ux/2007-11/msg00005.html so that a design based upon printers instead of based upon queues (which would of course be a better design) cannot be implemented. I provide it for testing and only for testing for the released openSUSE 10.3, openSUSE 10.2, and for the openSUSE development version openSUSE "factory" in the "noarch" sub-directory at http://software.opensuse.org/download/home:/jsmeix/ Its version number is intentionally less than the version of our official yast2-printer RPM so that you cannot install the experimental YaST printer setup module by accident (e.g. via whatever automated package installation tool). If you like to test it, first of all make sure that you have our official yast2-printer RPM available so that you can go back to the official package. Then download yast2-printer-2.1.0-1.1.noarch.rpm and install it as root with this command: rpm -Uhv --force yast2-printer-2.1.0-1.1.noarch.rpm Currently only the "Configure a Printer (i.e. Set Up a Print Queue)" dialog is of interest for me. Neither the "Connecion Wizard" nor the "Driver Wizard" is implemented. A simple queue deletion is possible but it is mainly intended for more convenient testing. Nothing is implemented regarding the CUPS server. A default CUPS 1.2 setup (i.e. a local running cupsd) is required, preferably listening to incomming CUPS browsing information from other CUPS servers in the network (which is the default). Nothing is implemented regarding "printing in the network" which is the real problem. Some background information what I had in mind when I made the new design: 1) First of all an "Overview of Already Configured Printers (so called 'Print Queues')" is shown to the user which lists also remote queues. The intention is that the user can directly check if there exists already a queue for a particular printers. 2) Set up a new queue happens in one single dialog, the "Configure a Printer (i.e. Set Up a Print Queue)" dialog. There is no three-step wizard-like sequence (first select the connection, then the driver, then specify a queue name). All three mandatory steps happen in one single dialog from the top down to the bottom. See http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-ux/2007-11/msg00017.html "Creating a (usual) local queue requires three mandatory parameters ... One parameter describes how the printer is connected ... One parameter describes which driver is to be used ... One parameter is a name for the queue" Anything else which can be set for a queue is not mandatory and should therefore be in an [Additional settings] sub-dialog to make it clear for the user what the crucial stuff is and what is only optional where is is usually best to leave the defaults. 2a) The driver is visible auto-selected. There is no longer a hidden automatism which results whatever driver it thinks is best. The new design makes it (hopefully) more obvious to the user if there is more than one driver available and which one actually is auto-selected. If a driver can be auto-selected, it does not require one more click for the user - it is just that the user can see that a driver-auto-selection happens. 2b) More descriptive text directly in the dialogs, see http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-ux/2007-05/msg00087.html For example: No longer plain buttons [More Drives] [All Drivers] [Driver Wizard] but now enriched with some text: If no suitable driver is shown, try [More Drives] or [All Drivers] or use the [Driver Wizard] 2c) Stretchable empty space instead of nested frames. I used stretchable empty space to separate the connection selection from the driver selection and from the queue name setting instead of having a frame around each of them. Now the 80x24-text-only-mode advocates may complain because my design seems to need more space. Of course I tested my design in 80x24-text-only-mode (call "yast printer" from a terminal emulation like "xterm") and it works but of course it doesn't look really nice there. Stretchable empty space works even better than frames in 80x24-text-only-mode because stretchable empty space can be condensed to nothing if there is no free space on the screen so that there is more space on a small screen for real content. Kind Regards Johannes Meixner -- SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5, 90409 Nuernberg, Germany AG Nuernberg, HRB 16746, GF: Markus Rex -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-ux+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-ux+help@opensuse.org