in general, I would agree, but some BASIC FUNCTIONALITY should
be brought by the printer itself, and if it's only ASCII printing,
so things like
% ls /etc > /dev/ulpt0
what's wrong in ls /etc|lpr
?
Exactly, THAT's the problem. If all manufacturers would agree to
have a certain standard about how printers can receive bitmapped
it's even easier to set up that standard than it was to set up PCL
standard.
USB allows two-side communication and virtual pipes.
so one pipe - printer control, command and response method, most important
command - get printer capabilities like resolutions supported, color
supported or not as MUST BE in standard, all extras like configuring paper
source, setting up printer specific options (say toner economy mode) -
optional. Another command - set mode (like 600 dpi, black&white).
second pipe - just getting raw bitmap.
incredibly simple to implement both in printer and software.
but looks like too difficult for manufacturers.
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