home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
-
- INTERIM_MEETING_REPORT_
-
- Reported by Don Wright/Lexmark
-
- Minutes of the Printer MIB Working Group (PRINTMIB)
-
- An interim meeting of the PRINTMIB Working Group was held in San Jose,
- California on 28 and 29 June 1994.
-
- The meeting began with introductions followed by a discussion of the
- agenda for the next two days.
-
- A short discussion occurred on the ``end plan'' of the MIB and the
- procedures used to get the draft into final form.
-
-
- Discussions
-
- o Bob Herriot identified a need to better document critical versus
- non-critical alerts in the SubUnitStatus textual convention.
- Better explanation is needed to indicate for example that critical
- means there is a critical event pending on the subunit. To resolve
- this, additional text will be added to the PRINTMIB to better
- defined the states.
-
- o In the media path group, the prtMediaPathMaxSpeedTimeUnit has only
- ``Hours'' as a valid value. Should we simply incorporate the time
- unit into the PathMaxSpeed object? We will incorporate the time
- unit (hour) into the prtMediaPathMaxSpeedPrintUnit object. We will
- remove the prtMediaPathMaxSpeedTimeUnit.
-
- o Remove eitherEdgeDuplex enum from prtMediaPathType.
-
- o Is DefaultOrientation a characteristic of the printer or of an
- interpreter? Do we need reverse portrait and reverse landscape?
- We will remove the ``reverse'' modes and move the object to the
- interpreter table changing its name appropriately.
-
- o Discussion generally on read-write variables and specifically on
- prtInputName as to whether it is a post- it object. Some
- clarification of the reasons for read- write MAX-ACCESS will be
- added.
-
- o Pete Grillo spoke about the current status of DMTF:
-
- - SDK General availability for Win 3.1, OS/2 2.x, and DOS 3.3+ is
- July 31st.
- - Overview of DMTF MIF hierarchy.
- - DMTF standardized on Unicode.
-
- o Harry Lewis presented a partial implementation of a print MIF. This
- is work in progress and will track the Common MIB/MIF document and
- the draft MIB.
-
- o The group worked with Pete Grillo and Steve Waldbusser to develop a
- methodology to insure that the MIF and MIB for printer management
- are fully aligned. We reopened the issue of distinguishing the
- hostmib objects from the PC versus the hostmib objects from the
- printer. The group also discussed unique requirements mapping MIB
- to MIF and vice versa. Final resolutions were not reached during
- the meeting. Steve Waldbusser took a ``homework'' assignment to
- try to make a proposal to resolve the issues of multiple hostmibs
- in a PC. Optional tables in the MIB are always included in the MIF
- and the object is ``unknown'' if those ``optional'' objects are not
- supported. Vendors may choose to omit the optional tables from the
- MIF that is shipped with the product.
-
- o Discussion on the use of the printer status objects in the hostmib
- as a part of printer management. Steve Waldbusser expressed that
- should we identify demonstrable advantages to adding status
- object(s) to the printer MIB then it would be OK to do so. The
- group was divided on the need to replace or at least augment the
- status provided in the HOST MIB. No changes were made.
-
- o Steve Zilles summarized the group's opinion on the hostmib's
- printer status: ``We agree that having device independent status
- of the RED/GREEN/YELLOW kind is a useful concept. We are unhappy
- with having additional printer status in the HostMIB but accept
- that is has to be there. We would like to recommend additional
- enumerated values for printer status but we don't have a coherent
- recommendation for the PrinterDetectedErrorState.''
-
- o Discussion on some corrections suggested by Barry Kelmen:
-
- - Changed a comment from ``DOS'' to ``MS-DOS/PC-DOS''
- - Changed channel #27 to ``chServerMessageBlock''
- - Changed channel #29 to chDLLapiCall
- - Changed channel #30 to chVxDapiCall
- - Interpreter TIFF is ``Tagged Image File Format''
-
- o Other changes agreed to:
-
- - Added chNPAP as a channel type
- - Prefix interpreter languages with ``lang''
- - Prefix channels with ``ch''
-
- o ``All Trademarks and Registered Trademarks are the property of
- their respective owners.'' will be added to the internet draft and
- other documents.
-
- o Configuration change counter records additions/deletions to the
- printer's configuration. Removal/reinsertion of the same paper
- tray should not cause a configuration change.
-
- o Clarifications were made to the section describing the recommended
- ways of dealing with the alert table when it overflows.
-
- o Discussion on the need for distinguished values for integers (-1,
- -2, -3) in the case of objects like prtInputCurrentLevel. We
- removed the -1 value from prtInputMediaWeight.
-
- o Discussion on a way to standardize the character set description
- string - should it be the common names for the character sets,
- ISO9070 names, other? Clarifications were added to several of the
- character set related objects. We will collect potential names.
-
- o AddressabilityUnits was clarified as .0001 inches, etc.
-
- o ``Other'' was removed from StackingOrder and
- PageDeliveryOrientation.
-
- o LifeCounter and PowerOnCounter cannot be negative. We will not
- allow -1, -2 values.
-
- o CurrentOperator and ServicePerson will be added as optional
- objects.
-
- o Discussion (again) on using printer status from the HOST MIB in the
- light of a lack of equivalent printer status objects in the DMTF
- world. If the DMTF does not provide a host resources MIF
- translated from the host resources MIB then this group will have to
- translate the need parts of the host resources MIB (devices,
- storage, status) and include in our MIF.
-
- o Steve Waldbusser presented his solutions to the problem identified
- in distinguishing ``host'' resources in the host MIB versus printer
- resources also contained in the host MIB. His solution will be in
- the next draft of the MIB and he will be reviewing this with Pete
- Grillo for DMTF concurrence.
-
- o Discussion on the issue of the ``need'' for a distinguished value
- to indicate ``unitialized'' for object where the printer may not be
- able to sense. Tom Hastings had sent several e-mail messages
- calling for this type of distinguished value. The group respects
- Tom Hasting's opinion but the group doesn't feel this is a complete
- solution for this problem because once an object has been written
- you lose the information that this object is ``inviting''
- initialization. The group will not add another distinguished value
- but recommends an algorithmic determination of writeability.
-
- o Discussion on the inclusion of Appendix B/C which might imply that
- the printer actually changes its behavior if an ISO MediaName is
- written. The description text will be changed to insure MediaName
- and MediaType are known to be clearly ``post-it.''
-
- o Delete object prtOutputJobCollated from prtOutputTableAugment.
-
- o Delete object prtOutputSlipsheet from the prtOutputTableAugment.
-
- o Delete object prtInterpreterDefaultIndex because the channel group
- requires a default interpreter for each channel that overrides any
- printer default interpreter.
-
- o Change some text on the ConsoleDisplayBufferText to indicate that
- writing a zero length string clears the text written to the buffer.
- Other events may also cause the text to be cleared but that is
- manufacturer dependent.
-
- o Clarified the naming and usage of the declared/granted input media
- objects. Bob Herriot presented the DPA's solution to the paper
- size snapping problem. No object changes were made.
-
- o Some editorial changes were made to clarify some of the textual
- information found at the front of the internet draft. These
- changes will be reflected in PRTSPEC3 and in draft #3 of the MIB.
-
- o Steve Waldbusser suggested the addition of a expiration-time- based
- lock for the localization to allow get requests to be properly
- returned in the desired language. No additional objects will be
- added as the group agreed to ignore this fringe area.
-
- o prtConsoleLock changed to prtConsoleDisable and appropriate text
- added.
-
- o The working group agreed that the MIB, with all agreed to changes
- made, should be taken forward to the area directorate.
-
-