We have made a few changes to the UPDF web site.
Mark VanderWiele, IBM, and Jim Sommer, Granite Systems, have been added as contacts in the Officers section.
I will concentrate very much on the sample implementation of XML files the next two months.
You will not see dramatic changes of the DTD during these weeks to give everybody the chance to get familiar with the current spec level.
I will be the direct contact for any developer working on a sample implementation, especially for printer manufactures and driver developers.
Mark VanderWiele is an expert on the UPDF spec and is concentrating on an implementation under Linux.
Jim Sommer is an expert on the spec as well and is working on an implementation under MS Windows.
Feel free to contact both of them for any spec question, if you can't or won't get me.
I will do a sample implementation for Oak Technology.
Hitachi and QMS/Minolta will work on some implementation on their side. Two other printer companies haven't yet decided.
I will share all my comments between the implementors, as I consider them facing similar problems. But I will not share these comments with the whole UPDF group, as it might get a bit technical and detailed from time to time.
While I am seriously prepared to provide as much insight into the UPDF concept over the next two months, I may not spend that much time again later with other developers. That is the advantage for those, who are willing to spend some time and thinking on it with me now.
This is the start of the UPDF sample implementation.
I know it's not exactly beginning of May as announced previously. It's the end of May to be exact.
But we cleaned out more stuff, which is not used, and filled up the rest with some real data. This makes the mother sample more transparent.
I put the current level of dtd and xml files on the net. Check it out from the UPDF web site.
I expect every implementor to have a dtd and a XML editor installed, not a simple text editor. I am using XML Authority and XML Pro, which I consider just standard applications, both available for about $100. And I expect them to have the sample files available on their system.
After another consistency check I will send all files out to the distributor tonight in case somebody has problems accessing the files directly.
That's all for the start.
I will be out Friday, June 1, and Monday, June 4. Back in the office on Tuesday morning. Everybody, who announced his interest til then, is in.
I do not expect developers involved in a sample implementation to deliver a fully equipped device description end of July. But I promise you will be an excellent judge, what the benefits of the concept are, how easy/difficult and time consuming the final implementation will be and you will understand the architecture of the format. These are our main three targets. We will automatically develop some sample features along with it as a side effect. That should provide excellent input for your company to make further necessary decisions. And you still haven't invested too much until then.
The mother sample I built is describing a virtual 'HP LaserJet 9000' supporting PCL 5e and PJL. This is a brand new monochrome printer. The XML is not fully equipped and will not be in eight weeks, but it contains enough data to use it as a template.
Our target date is July 30th 2001, the day of the next UPDF conference in Toronto (the exact day is not yet officially confirmed). I would appreciate, if all implementors could present their work in Toronto. I am confident that could be quite an impressive meeting.
When the driver developers will meet the printer developers, this will be the perfect similation how the pieces come together. From the work we have done in May I can already disclose that we will see some real time performance.
The first two or three weeks I will guide you through the task more directly to get everybody familiar and confident. After that questions and ideas will come up by themselves I guess.
For myself I set targets to fill up the mother sample with more real data and work on the specification documentation, as I think I will get an excellent feedback during the time, which sections of the spec should be explained more in detail.
Ok, that's it. Hope you'll enjoy it. I certainly will.
Regards
Norbert Schade
Principle Software Engineer
Host Software Group
Oak Technology, Inc.
10 Presidential Way
Woburn, MA 01801
USA
Phone: 1-781-638-7614
Fax: 1-781-638-7555
email: norbertschade@oaktech.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 31 2001 - 14:26:31 EDT