We have reviewed collation in UPDF.
A statement upfront:
In UPDF we are defining features, but a description developer using the UPDF device description is flexible to specify how the feature is going to be used and when a certain command sequence is to be sent at a different place: the events.
The idea behind that is to be able to specify a feature a certain way including attributes, ranges, lists of predefined values, etc.
Sample: Copies may be specified for one device on a PDL level, for another on a job level. As we see it that does not affect its description of the attributes mentioned above.
We want to stay with that concept for collation as well.
That means we do not want to specify how and when it will be used when specifying the feature.
Therefore we will stick with the two enumerated values 'Collated' and 'Uncollated', but not add a special 'JobCollated' (or any similar name) to it.
We have one major preference:
We want to tell about the way the device is expecting data. I think the device in most cases is expecting data either with job commands or (exclusively) with PDL commands (at least in some current PDL versions). I do not consider the case very popular that somebody wants to or has to or should be enabled to set job copies to 2, document1 copies to 1, document2 copies to 3 and then expect a dialog telling him which of the settings override or substitute others. Sometimes restriction is user guidance as well. The two last sentences are a personal statement, of course.
A secret peak into the future:
I could imagine that depending on the overall interest in UPDF we might add an attribute to every feature with enumeration values like 'DominantJobFeature', 'DominantDocumentFeature', 'JobFeature', 'DocumentFeature' (maybe even 'DominantPageFeature' and 'PageFeature'). Not a serious proposal for the time being. However this would allow to use the same feature definition, but additionally tell about its use.
Specification, schemas and instances with all final details on that not yet on the web.
Of course, I'm open to discussion.
Regards
Norbert Schade
Norbert Schade
69 Prescott Drive
North Chelmsford
MA 01863
phone: 1-978-251-1017
email: norbertschade@comcast.net
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