Re: WIMS> RE: Counter MIB questions

From: wamwagner@comcast.net
Date: Thu Jul 06 2006 - 16:35:57 EDT

  • Next message: McDonald, Ira: "RE: WIMS> RE: Counter MIB questions"

    OK. Ira, it seems that you agree with Stuart that:
    icMediaUsedMediaSizeName DisplayString and
    icMediaUsedMediaInfo SnmpAdminString
    both are not localized.

    The former is a PWG 5101.1 defined keyword; the latter is freeform in that it is not a public-spec defined keyword, but operationally should be one of a set of strings defined for use in a particular environment or with a particular application.

    This appears to overload icMediaUsedMediaInfo as both a qualifying descriptor for media identification and as a description for human consumption.

    Since the MIB is informational only (pending prototyping), and Stuart may be doing the prototyping, I would suggest that we collect the issues discovered during this effort and define an updated version of the MIB for resubmission as a candidate standard.

    Bill Wagner

    -------------- Original message --------------
    From: "McDonald, Ira" <imcdonald@sharplabs.com>

    Hi Stuart,

    The ASCII keyword in '...SizeName' should NOT be localized,
    but the equivalent elements in '...MediaInfo' ARE supposed to
    be localized.

    But, because '...MediaInfo' in the Abstact Counter spec (PWG
    5106.1) and Counter MIB is required for the key distinguishing
    two instances of the same size media (e.g., by color), it's highly
    undesirable to change the value of '...MediaInfo' when the printer
    locale changes - lousy side effects for accounting applications.

    Bill - I consider this a probable errata against the Counter MIB.

    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: Stuart Rowley [mailto:Stuart.Rowley@ktd-kyocera.com]
    Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 9:07 PM
    To: McDonald, Ira
    Cc: wims@pwg.org
    Subject: RE: Counter MIB questions

    Hi Ira,
     
    Thanks for the quick reply.
     
    The description for icMediaUsedMediaSizeName says:
     
    "The media size self-describing name for this specific media,
    for use with remote network management scripts and GUIs,
    specified as a Unicode string encoded in UTF-8 (RFC 3629)
    in the language specified in 'icGeneralNaturalLanguage'.
     
    ...so would this ASCII keyword be localized...?
     
    Thanks,
     
    Stuart

    From: McDonald, Ira [mailto:imcdonald@sharplabs.com]
    Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 12:47 PM
    To: Stuart Rowley; McDonald, Ira
    Cc: 'wims@pwg.org'
    Subject: RE: Counter MIB questions
     
    Hi Stuart,
     
    I copied the WIMS list, so others could see my remarks and chime in.
     
    The significance of icMediaUsedMediaSizeName being DisplayString is
    that it MUST be strict ASCII (it's a _keyword_ that follows the format in
    PWG 5101.1, not a free form name - even a custom size name has a
    format and MUST be strict ASCII).
     
    icMediaUsedMediaInfo is a description that makes '...SizeName' unique for
    instances of different (but same size) media. Because the IETF leaned
    on us hard to make all future MIB descriptive strings be internationalized,
    it's of type SnmpAdminString (UTF-8) and localized.
     
    Now - nothing prevents you from making the "localized" media info in
    Kyocera products be of the form:
     
      media-info = english-media-identifier ":" localized-description
     
    So that your accounting applications use the invariant identifier and
    save the localized-description (if at all) in a separate database field
    that's informational.
     
    Or you could cheat (I don't recommend this) and leave the value of
    icGeneralNaturalLanguage empty and just support all descriptive
    fields in US-English only (the default) - I _really_ don't recommend
    this approach, because it's not very customer-friendly.
     
    Hope this helps,
    - 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: Stuart Rowley [mailto:Stuart.Rowley@ktd-kyocera.com]
    Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 1:47 PM
    To: McDonald, Ira
    Subject: Counters MIB questions
    Hi Ira,
     
    I hope you had an enjoyable 4th of July weekend.
     
    I have a couple questions about the Counters spec and MIB regarding media used.
     
    There are 3 objects used to describe the media size and type.
    icMediaUsedMediaSizeName DisplayString,
    icMediaUsedMediaInfo SnmpAdminString,
    icMediaUsedMediaName SnmpAdminString
     
    What is the significance of icMediaUsedMediaSizeName using DisplayString and the others using SnmpAdminString?
     
    In the MIB it lists all three as being localized, but it seems only icMediaUsedMediaName should be localized. I need icMediaUsedMediaSizeName and icMediaUsedMediaInfo to be used by our accounting apps to identify the size and type for billing purposes. This would be hard to achieve using localized strings. Our apps would need to read standardized names from these two objects. Am I missing something?
     
    Thanks,
     
    Stuart
     
    Stuart Rowley
    Network Product Mgr.
    Kyocera Technology Development 

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