Canon printer and TurboPrint

[Wojciech Puchar]

>
> in general, I would agree, but some BASIC FUNCTIONALITY should
> be brought by the printer itself, and if it's only ASCII printing,
> so things like
>
> 	% ls /etc > /dev/ulpt0

what's wrong in ls /etc|lpr
?

> Exactly, THAT's the problem. If all manufacturers would agree to
> have a certain standard about how printers can receive bitmapped
it's even easier to set up that standard than it was to set up PCL 
standard.

USB allows two-side communication and virtual pipes.

so one pipe - printer control, command and response method, most important 
command - get printer capabilities like resolutions supported, color 
supported or not as MUST BE in standard, all extras like configuring paper 
source, setting up printer specific options (say toner economy mode) - 
optional. Another command - set mode (like 600 dpi, black&white).

second pipe - just getting raw bitmap.

incredibly simple to implement both in printer and software.

but looks like too difficult for manufacturers.