Was the PWG Bake-Off a Success or Failure?

Was the PWG Bake-Off a Success or Failure?

JK Martin jkm at underscore.com
Tue Aug 6 21:45:00 EDT 1996


Chuck,


I must say (in advance) that I am not "pouncing" on you with my
comments below.  ;-)


> Overall I found the pre-bakeoff useful. It was good to see that all
> these printers could be managed using the printer-MIB. I believe that
> this MIB could be used by an Independent Software Developer to
> implement a package or packages that could handle all these printers.


As I recanted in an earlier statement today, perhaps my use of the word
"failure" was a bit too harsh.  I just wish it would have been more
successful...and, quite honestly, I expected it to be more successful.


However, your above summary of the event is precisely what I had claimed
did NOT happen at the bake-off, namely:


> It was good to see that all these printers could be managed using
> the printer MIB.


Did I miss something at the bake-off?  (Was I out of the room AGAIN? ;-)


What applications did you see where the printers could all be managed
in the same fashion?  (I know my company's SENSE-based product did
portray such a "happy" situation.)


You also state:


> I believe that this MIB could be used by an Independent Software
> Developer to implement a package or packages that could handle all
> these printers.


I will fully acknowledge that based on the very limited amount of
testing by the group, we may not be that far away from a reasonable
level of conformance across the products tested.  However, I believe it
to be a bit premature to make a statement that "the MIB is now ready" for
ISV implementation...unless, of course, said ISVs are willing to
develop quite a bit of special-case code to handle the variations seen
at the bake-off.


Chuck, I feel compelled to respond like this due to the fact that
your statement appears to be just the kind of thing a marketing
organization might pick up and quote someplace.  I don't think
that would be appropriate, at least not at this time.


I wish it were different, believe me!




> If there is another bake-off I would like to see more work done up
> front to define the testing that is going to be done and the report
> that going to be filled. I appreciate Genoa testing the hr variables
> but I would have liked to see a more complete test of the printer-MIB
> done.


Amen to that, Chuck!  I also get the feeling that since I've been doing
the bulk of the complaining about the mis-implementations, then I'll be
expected to be a "significant contributor" in the development of a more
detailed test suite.  (And just when I thought I could take a vacation
this month... :-(


	...jay



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