UPD Mail Archive: Re: UPD> Comments on UPDF specification

Re: UPD> Comments on UPDF specification

From: NorbertSchade@oaktech.com
Date: Mon Aug 12 2002 - 17:17:37 EDT

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    I answered Alan a minute ago with the email below and sent him my current
    version of the spec, which is slowly showing some sign of professional
    layout.
    I detached the doc file from this email, as I'm still working on it and
    it's not yet in PDF format.
    But it's good to notice that more people are getting to the heart of UPDF.
    Makes those who devote parts of their life to it feel better.
    Expect the next public version of the format this week.
    Norbert

    ----- Forwarded by Norbert Schade/oaktech/us on 08/12/2002 05:11 PM -----
                                                                                                                                                  
                        Norbert Schade
                                             To: "Alan Hlava" <hlava@us.ibm.com>
                        08/12/2002 cc:
                        05:09 PM Subject: Re: UPD> Comments on UPDF specification(Document link: Norbert Schade)
                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                  

    Hi Alan,
    welcome to the group.
    There will be the day and time when I take a bit more time to talk to you,
    but for nowE just a short answer you may be very interested in.
    Thanks for your feedback.
    As you can imagine, we know about the lacks.
    But it simply needs time to do all this stuff.
    Fortunately (as a matter of fact to a perfect time for you) I attach my
    latest version of the specification documentation.
    I leave it to you to play with it. You may enjoy it. this is the result of
    the evenings of last week.
    It's not yet converted to PDF, as I'm still working a bit on some sections.
    I assume you have a WinWord somewhere in access.
    After that it has to rest again, as we have to get back to the technical
    side again.

    Your last two items are known, but unchanged for now.

    It will be fun to have somebody new to the group with serious interest.
    we'll talk again.
    Norbert

                                                                                                                                                  
                        "Alan Hlava"
                        <hlava@us.ibm To: upd@pwg.org
                        .com> cc:
                        Sent by: Subject: UPD> Comments on UPDF specification
                        owner-upd@pwg
                        .org
                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                  
                        08/12/2002
                        04:09 PM
                                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                                  

    The following are some comments about the UPDF specification
    (Universal Printer Description Format, Version 0.83.1) document.

    I am new to UPDF, but perhaps this is a positive thing in that it will
    provide the perspective of someone coming to UPDF "cold" and
    only having what's written down in the spec to go by.

    * There is no table of contents and no index, making it impossible
    to use this as a reference document.
    * Heading levels are not numbered like they were in 0.81.3, making an
    already difficult-to-follow nesting structure (see the following point) now

    impossible-to-follow. There are not even page numbers in the current
    version!
    * It is very difficult to discern the nesting of the XML elements. You
    have to
    either flip back and find the list of sub-elements in the containing
    element
    (in 0.81.3 you could count the numbering level in the numeric header, which

    gets very difficult as the nest level deepens). I would suggest using
    heading numbers and indenting as well to make the nesting visually obvious.

    * Many elements merely list the attributes without any explanation. While

    the purpose of some can be deduced from the names, this is very
    imprecise in a standards document and opens it up for misunderstandings
    and incompatibilities between vendors.
    * "XML-DTD encoding of UPDF" section references a DTD file but the UPDF
    is actually defined via XML schema (XSD) files.

    Regards,

    Alan Hlava
    IBM Printing Systems Division
    hlava@us.ibm.com



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