Classification:
Prologue:
Epilogue: Roger K deBry
Senior Techncial Staff Member
Architecture and Technology
IBM Printing Systems
email: rdebry at us.ibm.com
phone: 1-303-772-2479
1) LDAP question: Is it possible to use LDAP entries as an **example**?
2) Objective vs. Subjective attributes: Keith makes a good suggestion to
get customer input. However, I'm on the side of objective attributes. I
personally find measures like "high", "medium", and "low" as useless.
3) Cost-per-page issue: I believe that it is of utmost importance to put
things
in the directory schema that help an end user make a selection easily,
**without** requiring him or her to poll every printer that might be
used! If
we can't agree on the details then I think we absolutely need a field in
the
directory which is an unformatted user text string. Then as an
administrator
I can put in things that will be useful to my users -- even if the
architecture
doesn't provide what I need. Then when I browse the directory, I might get
something like "This is an expensive printer - only use it for final
presentation
slides. Drafts should be done on printer xyz", or the like.
4) Media-ready issue: I agree, but can't seem to get any consensus on the real
issue underlying this one which was what is the printer intended for.
Every day
I use printers to do tranparencies. I may not be guaranteed that they are
loaded,
but I'd sure like to know which printers are set up, normally use for, or
established
by the operator to print them. Maybe this is another example of the need
for a
free text entry to describe the printer.
6) Driver/Installer: I'd sure like to see something in the directory that told
me if there
was even a place to get drivers. Let the Printer provide the details, but
let me
know that it is even a possibility when I am searching the directory!
9) Security: We need the directory to say something about the security
mechanisms
of the printer. For example, if a printer requires all users to have a
password or
to have an account set up prior to use, or to own a digital certificate,
or ..., I'd like to
know that before I spend much time talking to the Printer. Maybe some
configurations
won't even allow a user to query the Printer without passing some security
mechanism.