On Mon, 24 May 2010, Brutzman, Bill wrote:
>
> I mostly agree with Jeff's "philosophy" but... What alternative does
> Jeff's recommend as the fix?
I understand it as well. However, the dearth of device-independent printer
support in Linux/Unix environments limits the options.
Let me sugget some modifications to your philosophy.
1) You have already removed some tasks from your server, most likely, into
freestanding "appliances", such as routers, firewalls, and possibly
network storage devices. In fact, one could argue that this creates a MORE
robust approach, because changes to your AIX system, for instance, are
less likely to inadverantly affect their operation.
We are considering making more changes to Print Wizard in order to make it
more able to function as a "printing appliance", sitting between the
server and the printer. For totally non-interactive tasks, this could be
an option.
2) If you are running Windows PCs as clients, using either terminal
emulation or a GUI front end, then consider the possibility of a print job
as a client task. Maybe not for printing thousands of invoices, but for
more personalized jobs.
For example, some of our users will generate a purchase order on the
server, feed it to the client, through Print Wizard, to generate a PDF of
the PO. Print Wizard creates an email message with the PO as an
attachment, and might also attach other files and documents to the email.
Then it opens the email (in Outlook or in our own window) and allows the
user to customize and personalize the email. They can enter recipient
information, subject, body text, additional recipients, etc., and also
attach other files. A similar process can be used for faxing.
I figured out years ago that there are MANY ways, combinations, and
permuations people want to do print-related tasks, and we continue to
expand the number of them that Print Wizard can address.
Regards,
....Bob Rasmussen, President, Rasmussen Software, Inc.
personal e-mail: r...@anzio.com
company e-mail: r...@anzio.com
voice: (US) 503-624-0360 (9:00-6:00 Pacific Time)
fax: (US) 503-624-0760
web: http://www.anzio.com
street address: Rasmussen Software, Inc.
10240 SW Nimbus, Suite L9
Portland, OR 97223 USA
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