Richard,
I thought I would send this out separate from the other issues, since this
appears to be the most critical fax issue.
The first question, from the IPP meeting that came from this discussion...
"Where is the time stamp afixed to the document? (i.e. At the source or
the destination?)" If the document image is ever stored between the two
points these times could be very different, even without the consideration
of time zone changes.
It was generally agreed by IPP participants that an IPP/IFAX compatible
printer could be required to implement a real-time clock. The IPP/IFAX
feature would be a superset of the present IPP version 1.0, as it most
likely will require the inclusion of new attributes and other features
beyond the current specifications. This is not a serious problem, since
IPP is very extensible and is not restricted by any legacy printing
applications.
The second question concerns the legal issues... "Would the legal
requirements of a real-time clock for current fax machines automatically
apply to an IPP/IFAX device?" If this answer is yes, there would exist a
very strong incentive for a vendor not to build an IPP/IFAX device that
does not have a real-time clock.
Please let me know if there remains any issues regarding a time stamp.
Ron Bergman
Dataproducts Corp.