I don't know what will ever be the catalyst for progressing the HR MIB or
how lack of HR MIB progression will ultimately effect the Printer MIB. I
have an observation and suggestion, however, related to the Printer MIB and
the HR MIB.
PWG has groaned repeatedly that we are restricted from fully defining printer
status due to previously defined minimal set in HR MIB. Still true. But,
in reading the HR MIB prtDetectedErrorState, I find the definition is
Octet String and the description defines how multiple bytes should be ordered.
This implies more bits can be defined. We might be able to improve on our
status indication by making use of this observation. It might also give
the HR MIB a reason to re-activate (admit, I'm really naive about this).
Here are my initial recommendations for new bit definitions:
Tray Open
Output Full
Toner Cartridge Missing (or other form of supply like ribbon, ink etc.)
Currently, our implementation maps Tray Open to (bit) Low Paper
Output Full Service Requested
Toner Cartridge Missing No Toner
I have to imagine that other implementation work in a similar fashion and I'll
bet interoperability testing would demonstrate differences in how we all do
it!
Harry Lewis - IBM Printing Systems