What was the motivation for including system-config-printer in Slackware?

Lockywolf · 05-01-2019, 11:11 AM

It's not that I am against GUI configuration tools per se, but having just this one particular tool, especially since CUPS already includes one of the most comprehensive wizard-based configuration cools found in UNIX systems in the stock package (albeit web-based) seems so unlike Slackware that I'm starting to suspect there must be some story behind it.

Does anyone remember?

bassmadrigal · 05-01-2019, 11:37 AM

There is no mention if it on the changelog when it was introduced 9 years ago (during 13.1's development -- actually it was introduced when 13.1 Beta 1 was announced). Here's the entry (scroll to see the addition of system-config-printer):

Code:

Thu May  6 21:02:02 UTC 2010
Hi folks!  We have some pretty big changes today, with an update to the latest
KDE SC 4.4.3, and the addition of support for ConsoleKit and PolicyKit which
have been enhanced to use shadow authentication.  Thanks to Andrew Psaltis for
doing some great work on polkit-1, and to Robby Workman for spending months
following the sometimes random developments coming from the CK/PK camp.  :-)
Thanks to Eric Hameleers for leading the KDE 4.4.x Slackware development and
handling the out-of-tree testing through http://alien.slackbook.org/blog/.
And with that, we're calling this Slackware 13.1 BETA1.  A stable release
should be just around the corner...
ap/mysql-5.1.46-i486-2.txz:  Rebuilt.
  Added some headers that are needed to compile external database engines.
  Thanks to Heinz Wiesinger.
kde/guidance-power-manager-4.4.0-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/k3b-1.91.0-i486-3.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kaudiocreator-r1118889-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdeaccessibility-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdeadmin-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdeartwork-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdebase-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdebase-runtime-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdebase-workspace-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdebindings-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdeedu-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdegames-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdegraphics-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdelibs-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdelibs-experimental-4.3.5-i486-1.txz:  Removed.
kde/kdemultimedia-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdenetwork-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdepim-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdepim-runtime-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdepimlibs-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdeplasma-addons-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdesdk-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdetoys-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdeutils-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdevelop-4.0.0-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdevplatform-1.0.0-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kdewebdev-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/konq-plugins-4.4.0-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/kopete-cryptography-1.3.0_kde4.4.0-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/oxygen-icons-4.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
kde/polkit-kde-1-r1120537-i486-1.txz:  Added.
kde/polkit-qt-1-r1118744-i486-1.txz:  Added.
kde/skanlite-0.4_kde4.4.0-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
l/ConsoleKit-20100129-i486-1.txz:  Added.
l/PyQt-4.7.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
l/QScintilla-2.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
l/akonadi-1.3.1-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
l/attica-0.1.3-i486-1.txz:  Added.
l/boost-1.42.0-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
l/ebook-tools-0.1.1-i486-2.txz:  Added.
l/eggdbus-0.6-i486-1.txz:  Added.
l/hunspell-1.2.9-i486-1.txz:  Added.
l/libdiscid-0.2.2-i486-1.txz:  Added.
l/libiodbc-3.52.7-i486-2.txz:  Added.
l/libmsn-4.1-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
l/libspectre-0.2.5-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
l/phonon-4.4.1-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
l/polkit-1_14bdfd8-i486-1.txz:  Added.
l/polkit-gnome-0.95-i486-1.txz:  Added.
l/qt-4.6.2_2d3d3e5-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
l/rasqal-0.9.19-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
l/redland-1.0.10-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
l/shared-desktop-ontologies-0.3-i486-1.txz:  Added.
l/sip-4.10.2-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
l/soprano-2.4.3-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
l/system-config-printer-1.2.1-i486-1.txz:  Added.
l/virtuoso-ose-6.1.1-i486-1.txz:  Added.
x/xdg-utils-1.0.2-noarch-4.txz:  Upgraded.
  Upgraded to 20100506 cvs snapshot.
x/xterm-258-i486-1.txz:  Upgraded.
xap/xfce-4.6.1-i486-7.txz:  Rebuilt.
  In xinitrc.xfce, launch xfce4-session with ck-launch-session.
isolinux/initrd.img:  Rebuilt.
  Fixed missing libgcrypt and libgpg-error.
usb-and-pxe-installers/usbboot.img:  Rebuilt.
testing/packages/amarok-2.3.0.90-i486-1.txz:  Added.

volkerdi · 05-01-2019, 02:01 PM

At the time it was required by kdeadmin. I'd have to do some research to see if it's still a dependency of KDE4 or Plasma 5.

Didier Spaier · 05-01-2019, 02:10 PM

I would say no for KDE4 as it's not found in the deps hosted here for Slackware64-14.2: http://slackware.uk/salix/x86_64/slackware-14.2/deps/ but I can't be sure as depfinder is not 100% accurate for the Python deps and I don't know if it was run with the -p option by George.

PS: when I wrote 100% accurate, I meant "there can be false positives", e.g. if system-config-printer is an optional dependency of another package.

upnort · 05-01-2019, 06:42 PM

A useful applet. Please don't remove.

Lockywolf · 05-01-2019, 09:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by upnort

A useful applet. Please don't remove.

I didn't realise there is also an applet. (Carelessness sucks!)
Indeed, in my opinion having an applet justifies the inclusion of this package. Although I still don't really like the actual configuration wizard, but a printer status applet is a handy tool.

Poprocks · 05-04-2019, 02:04 PM

XFce doesn't have a graphical printer configurator outside the web-based interface, so it's a great addition to an XFce-centric system.

That being said, I wouldn't be particularly offended if it were removed.