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Group forms to develop universal print driver=20
By Ephraim Schwartz=20
InfoWorld Electric=20
Posted at 5:49 AM PT, Oct 24, 1998=20
Working quietly, an informal group of the leading printer manufacturers =
is
working to create a single universal print driver that will replace the =
more
than 3,000 drivers that are currently required.=20
The goal is to have only one driver included in the operating system, =
or a
Universal Printer Driver Format (UPDF), with the individual =
characteristics
of a particular printer described in a text file residing within the =
printer
itself.=20
"We are hoping the [bidirectional] characteristics of the UPDF will =
help IT
managers, in that less support of printers is needed," said Sandra =
Matts,
chair of the UPDF committee in the Printer Working Group (PWG) and an
engineer scientist for Workgroup Color LaserJets at Hewlett-Packard, in
Boise, Idaho. "They won't have to configure every client's computer for =
each
printer the client will use."=20
Commands would reside in the text file within the printer to invoke the
printer's capabilities. If a user wanted to do duplex printing, for =
example,
the text file would send the correct data stream.=20
On the operating system side, the driver is universal. It is on the =
client
side that unique features are described.=20
"There is no such thing as a device-independent data stream," said =
Harry
Lewis, a member of the PWG and a printing systems architect at IBM =
Printing
Systems Division, in Boulder, Colo.=20
Every device may have different characteristics that can change.=20
A so-called meta-language developed by the PWG would be able to =
describe all
of the features of the printer for access by the single driver in the =
OS.=20
"Basically, it is similar to PostScript page description language," =
said Dan
Wright, another PWG member and the product manager for alliances for
standards at Lexmark, in Lexington, Ky.=20
According to group members, the finished driver will be available for
testing in eight months to one year, with another two months needed for
interoperability testing before it ships.=20
The universal driver will require the support of operating system =
vendors,
such as Microsoft, as well as Unix operating system vendors. Currently,
Microsoft ships a CD with more than 3,000 printer drivers with each =
package
of Windows NT.=20
Microsoft support appears to be in place, according to Paul Moore, =
program
manager for Windows NT 5.0 printing.=20
The Redmond, Wash., software company currently has Unidrive 5 in Beta 2 =
of
NT 5.0, which is similar to technology that might be used as the basis =
for
the UPDF, according to Moore.=20
Moore believes the UPDF will benefit IT departments.=20
"We think that a lot of IT manager problems arise from having too many
printer drivers. The benefits [of a universal driver] would be all =
around,"
Moore said. "It will reduce the administrative load."=20
The single driver as envisioned by members of the PWG allow a UPDF to =
query
the printer device for capabilities.=20
"Today, we really rely on the user selecting in the UI features of the
printer," Matts said. "It's really a best guess at times. UPDF will =
allow
our drivers to truly know what is attached to the printer at the start =
of
the print job."=20
The Printer Working Group can be reached at www.pwg.org =
<http://www.pwg.org>
.=20
Ephraim <mailto:ephraim_schwartz@infoworld.com> Schwartz is an editor =
at
large for InfoWorld.=20
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