I think the answer to Michael's question is in Jay's description.
"The value of this object can be any arbitrary string..." If an
administrator wanted to use the AppleTalk name, or any name, he may.
But the spec must not limit he ability to use some other name if he
wished. Incidentally, I would not suggest that the AppleTalk name be
used, since multiple printers can have the same name, and
differentiation is typically accomplished by appending a digit one
higher than that appended to any identical base name discovered. The
names then, can either be nonunique or nonconsistent from power cycle
to power cycle, depending upon whether one considers the name to
include the differentiating digit. Further, printers tend to be
multiprotocol, with the AppleTalk name not necessarily being preserved
across other protocols.
I have suggested...not to strongly... that the AppleTalk printer name
(and zone) would be an appropriate entry for the new
prtChannelMagicCookie object associated with AppleTalk PAP.
Bill Wagner, DPI.
______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
Subject: Re: Draft of the new prtGeneralPrinterName MIB object
Author: jkm at underscore.com (JK Martin) at Internet
Date: 8/1/96 7:02 PM
Michael,
> Would it be acceptable to allow the administrative name to be used for
> AppleTalk addressing purposes? In that environment, printers are identified
> by symbolic names (up to 31 characters) in the Chooser. There are some
> limitations on the character set which may be used for such names though
> whereas the description below allows any arbitrary string.
I don't see why one can't use the AppleTalk "Chooser" name as the
value for this object. Seems pretty rationale and natural to me.
Let me ask this: given a heterogenous network (PCs, Macs, Unix, etc),
would an administrator refer to the printer by the Mac Chooser name
within all environments? That is, if the Chooser name is "LaserZapper",
then would an administrator tend to refer to the printer as "LaserZapper"
in the non-Mac environments?
...jay