PMP Mail Archive: PMP> RE: Adding ppmPortDescription to Port

PMP> RE: Adding ppmPortDescription to Port Mon MIB

From: McDonald, Ira (imcdonald@sharplabs.com)
Date: Mon Apr 25 2005 - 15:11:42 EDT

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    Hi Ron,

    If Apple and others never want to display port/channel
    state/status from the Printer MIB, we can throw out
    ppmPortChannelIndex. Otherwise, it's a bad mistake.

    Only the ppmPortChannelIndex object can be used to
    disambiguate which prtChannelState/prtChannelStatus to
    use for detailed port status - otherwise, the ppmPortTable
    _cannot_ be mapped into the prtChannelTable at all - because
    channels frequently do have duplicate protocol types in
    existing printers - there's no key.

    The prtChannelIndex _does_ disambiguate text versus binary.
    The prtChannelTable contains the two key pointer elements:

        prtChannelCurrentJobCntlLangIndex
        prtChannelDefaultPageDescLangIndex

    These point into the prtInterpreterTable and _can_ be used
    to disambiguate the mode of the interpreter (and channel)
    via the machine-readable objects in prtInterpreterTable and
    the prtInterpreterDescription object.

    Of course, if we throw out ppmPortDescription, there's still
    no fix for the design flaw in prtChannelTable that it lacks
    prtChannelDescription.

    Keeping it simple doesn't mean adding new design flaws.

    Cheers,
    - Ira

    Ira McDonald (Musician / Software Architect)
    Blue Roof Music / High North Inc
    PO Box 221 Grand Marais, MI 49839
    phone: +1-906-494-2434
    email: imcdonald@sharplabs.com
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Bergman, Ron [mailto:Ron.Bergman@rpsa.ricoh.com]
    Sent: Monday, April 25, 2005 1:08 PM
    To: McDonald, Ira; Mike Fenelon; Paul Danbold
    Cc: pmp@pwg.org; Harry Lewis (E-mail); Ivan Pavicevic
    Subject: RE: Adding ppmPortDescription to Port Mon MIB

    Ira,

    One of the goals of this MIB was to keep it light weight and not load it up
    with all the normal extras we
    put in the MIB to meet all the imposed requirements. In this case it does
    not seem to be necessary to
    have both a descriptive name and a description. Both Mike and Paul have
    agreed. If we follow your
    suggestion, the name will end up being a very generic name installed by the
    manufacturer and not of
    much use to the "port installer" function. The whole purpose of calling
    this a descriptive name was to
    eliminate the need for the 2 objects. Let's change the object name to
    reflect this change to
    "ppmPortDescrName" so it doesn't violate are "rules".

    Also, the need to restore "ppmPortChannelIndex" based upon its ability "to
    disambiguate (for example)
    Text vs Binary LPR channels" is incorrect. The Channel Table does not
    provide any information regarding
    Text vs Binary.

        Ron
    -----Original Message-----
    From: McDonald, Ira [mailto:imcdonald@sharplabs.com]
    Sent: Saturday, April 23, 2005 2:32 PM
    To: Bergman, Ron; Mike Fenelon; McDonald, Ira; Paul Danbold
    Cc: pmp@pwg.org; Harry Lewis (E-mail); Ivan Pavicevic
    Subject: RE: Adding ppmPortDescription to Port Mon MIB

    Hi,

    Forgive the delay in response - I was offline packing for two days.

    There's a PWG Semantic Model naming convention for elements here
    that's important (and agrees with Mike's intended usage).

    In the Semantic Model (and in IPP) there are two distinct base datatypes:
    Name (restricted character set, leaving out most non-alpha/non-digit) and
    Text (unrestricted character set, except that most control characters are
    still invalid).

    In Printer MIB, Job MIB, SM/1.0, and IPP there are numerous elements
    that are called 'XxxName' (e.g., prtInputName in the Printer MIB) that are
    _static_ and SHOULD NOT be changed (or lost across reboots) after
    device installation (when the Administrator can override the Factory default

    name). Such elements are used in SM/1.0 as _keys_ (for object lookup).

    In Printer MIB, etcm there are also numerous elements that are called
    'XxxDescription' (e.g., prtInputDescription) that are _dynamic_ and SHOULD
    be changed when the current configuration of the element is modified
    by an Operator or Administrator. Such elements are never used as keys.

    An element called (or used) ppmPortNameOrDescription _cannot_ be added
    to the Semantic Model (because it breaks existing strong typing in our XML
    schema).

    The Apple request can only be satisfied by a separate, dynamic text object.

    Cheers,
    - Ira

    Ira McDonald (Musician / Software Architect)
    Blue Roof Music / High North Inc
    PO Box 221 Grand Marais, MI 49839
    phone: +1-906-494-2434
    email: imcdonald@sharplabs.com
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Bergman, Ron [mailto:Ron.Bergman@rpsa.ricoh.com]
    Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 3:24 PM
    To: Mike Fenelon; McDonald, Ira; Paul Danbold
    Cc: pmp@pwg.org; Harry Lewis (E-mail); Ivan Pavicevic
    Subject: RE: Adding ppmPortDescription to Port Mon MIB

    Mike,

    The ppmPortName object may contain a maximum of 127 characters.
    Does this meet your requirement?

       Ron

    -----Original Message-----
    From: Mike Fenelon [mailto:mfenelon@windows.microsoft.com]
    Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 9:59 AM
    To: Bergman, Ron; McDonald, Ira; Paul Danbold
    Cc: pmp@pwg.org; Harry Lewis (E-mail); Ivan Pavicevic
    Subject: RE: Adding ppmPortDescription to Port Mon MIB

    The intent of this object is to give a short, concise user-friendly name of
    the port. It will be presented in the User Interface for and device that
    advertises more than one port so the user can pick the correct port for
    their connected printer. The whole intent was to differentiate between
    multiple ports on a device that could host multiple printers. I am
    concerned we will start degrading the user experience if we add a whole
    bunch of ports for the same printer with slightly different names.

    Mike Fenelon
    Microsoft

    From: Bergman, Ron [mailto:Ron.Bergman@rpsa.ricoh.com]
    Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 9:32 AM
    To: McDonald, Ira; Paul Danbold
    Cc: pmp@pwg.org; Harry Lewis (E-mail); Mike Fenelon; Ivan Pavicevic
    Subject: RE: Adding ppmPortDescription to Port Mon MIB

    Ira,

    I would like to hear from Mike or Ivan on this subject, rather than rely on
    memory.
    Your comment does not agree with the current description clause for this
    object.

        Ron
    -----Original Message-----
    From: McDonald, Ira [mailto:imcdonald@sharplabs.com]
    Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 8:37 AM
    To: 'Paul Danbold'; Bergman, Ron
    Cc: pmp@pwg.org; Harry Lewis (E-mail); McDonald, Ira;
    MFenelon@microsoft.com; IvanP@microsoft.com
    Subject: RE: Adding ppmPortDescription to Port Mon MIB
    Hi Ron,

    Doesn't work - MS specifically said that they wanted PortName restricted
    to a _name_ that they will display in their tools and do NOT want it to
    include descriptive text. Your memory is incorrect.

    Cheers,
    - Ira

    Ira McDonald (Musician / Software Architect)
    Blue Roof Music / High North Inc
    PO Box 221 Grand Marais, MI 49839
    phone: +1-906-494-2434
    email: imcdonald@sharplabs.com
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Paul Danbold [mailto:danbold@apple.com]
    Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 11:55 PM
    To: Bergman, Ron
    Cc: pmp@pwg.org; Harry Lewis (E-mail); Ira McDonald (E-mail 3);
    MFenelon@microsoft.com; IvanP@microsoft.com
    Subject: Re: Adding ppmPortDescription to Port Mon MIB
    Ron,

    Thanks for the clarification. In the expectation that manufacturers will
    initialize ppmPortName with helpful information, I am satisfied there is no
    need to add an additional object.

    -Paul

    ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Paul Danbold
    Imaging Technologies Evangelist, Apple Worldwide Developer Relations
    3 Infinite Loop, MS:303-2TE, Cupertino, CA 95014
    408-974-0050 (office) 408-425-3351 (mobile)
    ---------------------------------------------------------------

    On Apr 15, 2005, at 9:48 AM, Bergman, Ron wrote:

    I remembered this morning why we decided, several months back, to remove
    this object.
    Since the MIB contained both a desciptive name and a description, it was
    agreed that
    the two objects were redundant. To clarify this situation I recommend that
    the object
    ppmPortName be changed to ppmPortDescriptiveName or ppmPortDescription,
    rather
    than go back to the original redundant pair.
    ppPortName is a natural language string with up to 127 characters. For Paul
    Danbold's
    example I could provide a name such as:
            "Networked LPR port providing binary PostScript printing for use by
    marketing"
    This is less than 80 characters and should be more than sufficient to
    satisfy Paul's
    requirement.
    Also, in addition to a possible name change, it must be noted that this
    object is
    expected to be administratively configured using an out-of-band method.
    Paul, please indicate if this is sufficient.
            Ron Bergman
            Ricoh Printing Systems America



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