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Norbert, thanks for sharing these experiences with the PWG. I am very glad to see some useful application of UPDF, especially considering all the effort you and others in the PWG put into it. I'm sure you are aware of the recent OSDL print summit. It seems like UPDF might be a technology they would like to investigate as they attempt to migrate Linux off the traditional use of PPDs. ---------------------------------------------- Harry Lewis IBM STSM Chairman - IEEE-ISTO Printer Working Group http://www.pwg.org IBM Printing Systems http://www.ibm.com/printers 303-924-5337 ---------------------------------------------- <table width=100%> <tr valign=top> <td width=40%>"Norbert Schade" <norbert.schade@SigmaTel.com> Sent by: owner-upd@pwg.org 04/25/2006 02:14 PM <td width=59%> <table width=100%> <tr valign=top> <td> <div align=right>To</div> <td><upd@pwg.org> <tr valign=top> <td> <div align=right>cc</div> <td> <tr valign=top> <td> <div align=right>Subject</div> <td>UPD> latest news on UPDF</table> <table> <tr valign=top> <td> <td></table> </table> Hi everybody, I wonder who is still on the reflector. Thought i’d share some news on the use of UPDF.   Some of you may remember that i joined Oasis Semiconductor in 2004 (BTW: Oasis has been acquired by SigmaTel in September 2005. but our host software department was not affected too much).   Pretty soon after i joined the group we decided that the set of UPDF schemas could help us well in some areas. We started using it as part of our specifications to avoid ambiguous descriptions of driver features and according parameters. That proved to be very reliable and we are still doing it today.   A bit later we thought about using the same xml instances we already got due to the specifications in the real drivers. Ok, a larger effort. And we needed some time. Guess what? We have it working. We are making extensive use of the PWG schemas with focus on the UPDF schemas in our print and fax drivers. Even in our scanner drivers we use the string handling as designed in UPDF. If anybody wants to know further details, i’d be quite open to talk it over.   Just to mention two cute issues we now love to have: -          string handling we can change any string in any of our xml locale instances and immediately validate it in the corresponding UI – without re-compilation. So we can easily simulate a translator’s job at the customer’s site. No translator has to deal with C code or header files. Any common XML editor will do. Even standard text editors are ok (however i would not recommend them, as i love the validation feature of the xml editors). -          Device description it’s convenient to add another media size record to the xml based device description or just change its values and see it used. I can even do that after installation. The biggest advantage is that we can easily agree on unambiguous parameters with customers. They don’t have to understand any source code to see how it’s used. I like it. Ok, may be that’s not too much of a surprise.   As a side effect we could prove that all schemas are perfectly usable for driver development – with one little exception. And it’s certainly not the typical day-by-day use. But i will explain that in a separate email in a minute. Other than that everything is just fine. Our drivers have passed a number of QA cycles in the last half year. So we are confident we have thoroughly investigated all circumstances. we have drivers now based on the Semantic Model and the UPDF schemas under Windows platforms starting from 98SE up to XP. And if at any time we would face an operating system that makes a more intense use of xml to describe device capabilities, i wonder, if i could actually enjoy that. what platform could that be :>)))   Just thought this might be of interest to the group. Regards Norbert Schade     Norbert Schade Host Software Manager SigmaTel, Inc. 201 Jones Road Waltham, MA 02451 USA tel. 1-781-370-8929 fax. 1-781-370-8990 email:<a href=mailto:norbert.schade@sigmatel.com>norbert.schade@sigmatel.com</a> This email message and any attachments are confidential, proprietary, and may be privileged. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify Oasis Semiconductor, Inc. immediately -- by replying to this message and/or calling 781-370-8989 -- and immediately destroy all copies of this message and any attachments. Furthermore, you are hereby notified that any copying, disclosure, dissemination, or distribution of this email communication is strictly prohibited. Thank you.