Re: bidi text printing

[Behdad Esfahbod <behdad at cs dot toronto dot edu>]

Someone somewhere wrote:

> > > With a program like paps (check Dov's post) and most programs
> > > printing... Is it important to have lp, lpr shape and bidi
> > > arabic text. even though i could get a program like paps to
> > > convert the text to .ps with 1 command ?
> >
> >As discussed on IRC, it is best to get proper support within
> >the application itself (it ensures longevity in the support
> >among many other things).  Newbies for one will not seek out
> >"alternate" solutions (nor will non-hackers and business-type
> >users) so it would be best to have it supported from the get-go
> >natively within the popular applications.

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong, in many many many ways:

  * Yes, it is best to get proper support in the application
itself, but "really proper", not just something that does the
job.  For example, I send shivers down my spine everytime I
remember that "less" is will be doing something about LamAlef
ligature!!!  That's simply a very very bad design.  For the
least, there should be a library that "less" will use.

  * Newbies *do* seek for alternative solutions.  They search on
Google.  Since they **don't know** about the Unix traditions.
They don't know that some command named "lpr" exists at all.

  * Business-type users *do* seek for alternative solutions too.
What can they do otherwise??

  * For both newbies and business-type users, you better add
printing support in desktops.  Have you ever tried printing
Arabic with gedit?  What about Mozilla??  AbiWord???

  * Newbies *are not supposed to* use command line tools.  Eh?
At least without asking others for advice.

> > > I'm new to linux (so go easy on me) and I can't understand
> > > the need for such a primitive application like 'lp' needing
> > > to address international issues, if it can be done by using
> > > a higher level format...
> >
> >There will always be demand for lp/lpr (and look into something
> >called 'enscript') since the command-line and the terminal
> >emulator will never disappear.

So yes, there will always be demand for lpr, but what does it
mean???  lpr is used by every command that wants print.  Where do
you deduce that people are supposed to call lpr on command line
manually???

Last, but not least, don't forget the Unix philosophy:  Every
tool should do a small job, but do it good.  Pipes are your
friend.


--behdad
  behdad.org