>>"stock" Internet software like web browsers, web servers, and web client
>libraries don't seem particularly helpful for a printing application.
They are helpful. People are doing it.
>>Yes, it's easy to prototype new protocols using http, but when you try to
>productize those prototypes, you may find there are more features in
>http 1.1 than you wanted to support in your product.
HTTP 1.0 and 1.1 support will be on standard "stock" web servers and web
clients, regardless of what IPP is implemented on. We don't have to use
all features of HTTP 1.1 if we don't need to.
>>I hate to see products and protocols saddled with baggage that nobody needs.
>>(or are there some other kinds of "stock Internet software" that I'm
>not thinking about?)
Yes. For example, Interent Explorer just uses the underlying Win32
Internet APIs that all others applications could use as well. So each
Windows client machine contains the "stock" Interenet client software
everyone can code to. Notice that by using these APIs, many other issues
like security, encryption, etc. are taken care of as a side effect.
Babak
>>