As I stated in yesterday's telecon, Print by reference is a
requirement for Network computers that have limited local
storage. I suggested that we discuss this in more detail at
the protocol meeting being held at Sun in a couple of weeks,
and that we establish a set of assumptions on what the key
objectives are for Print by Reference. From yesterday's
call it was clear that we each have a different view of what
Print by Reference is for.
I have what I think is a very straightforward requirement and
it does not require anything very complex in IPP. Furthermore,
I believe that this represents a major printing application within
the enterprise. Finally, I don't think that Print by Reference is
Web Printing, and we should probably distinguish the two.
Printing Web pages introduces more complexity and gets
into a number of issues that I agree with Randy on --
we probably don't want to deal with these in version 1.0
of the protocol.
My objective is to meet the following requirement. An enterprise
chooses to keep libraries of technical reports, procedures
manuals, policies, etc. that are in printable format, e.g. as
Postscript files. They want to make these accessible to anyone
within their organization (no security requirements). As an
employee I want to get a particular report and print it. I'd like to
be able to use my web browser (or other GUI) to locate the
document and then issue a print request, pointing to the document
that I just found. The printer gets the file and prints it.
This eliminates the need for me to download the file (In the
NC case, I might not have the local storage necessary to hold
the file to be printed).
This would be ideal in industries like insurance, where the home
office keeps the library of current policies, forms, contracts, etc.,
and when a branch wants to print a copy of something it just
points the print request to it.
The same could apply to publicly available documents (such
as Internet-Drafts) on the Internet. The two conditions required
are that the document be in a standard printable format and that
the document be publicaly available.
Roger K deBry
Senior Techncial Staff Member
Architecture and Technology
IBM Printing Systems
email: rdebry at us.ibm.com
phone: 1-303-924-4080