printing in reactos

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mauro451
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Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2017 8:05 pm

printing in reactos

Post by mauro451 »

good evening all, I've installed time ago a ROS 0.4.5 version in a Virtualbox machine, running well enough for what it is (a premature alpha version) considering that runs well in a 2010 2Gb RAM netbook Intel Atom cpu, much more than the virtualized XP SP3 same in Virtualbox.
From that moment I decided to keep an eye on this project.
I learned that the missing printing system is not a priority in the present development step.
Developers are improving many things on the releases path but I do not understand why a printing system is considered as a "to do when we will have more time to think about". I'm frankly missing this concept of non-priority.
According to a simple user pointview like mine, the potential of an operating system is evalued in the following elements :

-UI
-sound play
-video play
-software handling
-connectivity, network and web browsing
-printing
-scanning
-devices communications-interface

agree that we're talking about an alpha version , but printing system is a basic element to have among others, and moving from a release to a next one does not show a genuineinterest on it.
In Reactos we can install and use more than just one word processor or spreadsheet, we can edit images, open a pdf page, display an email or just a log .... and the natural next step would be printing them.
Am I right ?
For the moment I'll keep the installation of the 0.4.5 until I'll found the announcement that a printing system will be introduced in the coming release
Thank you meantime
justincase
Posts: 441
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Re: printing in reactos

Post by justincase »

Your list is missing one important thing:
-STABILITY

This is a good portion of what the developers are putting their time into, which pushes all of the other things on your list down a notch on the priority list, as for example, having a fully functional print stack wouldn't matter much if the operating system will crash when trying to use it.

I hope this helps.
I reserve the right to ignore any portion of any post if I deem it not constructive or likely to cause the discussion to degenerate.
mauro451
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2017 8:05 pm

Re: printing in reactos

Post by mauro451 »

Understand, clear.
I did not mention stability because dont'even talk about a system not staying up and running .

I've found my Reactos installation stable enough to be used and go ahead for other items, that's the reason why it deserves my eye on it.
Thank you for answering
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Fraizeraust
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Re: printing in reactos

Post by Fraizeraust »

The Printing system is actually there (trunk merged in 0.4.4 release) and it is deemed to work (such as printing a basic document) however it is still under development and not completely done yet, so don't expect top-notch results.
a.k.a. GeoB99 -- ReactOS Kernel developer -- My Wiki page
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dizt3mp3r
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Re: printing in reactos

Post by dizt3mp3r »

The thing is, that your expectations have been raised by the recent improvements in stability that the developers are working so hard upon. We all have expectations of ReactOS. Lower them for the moment and wait for a bit.

At some point, I can't say 'soon' but at some point your issues may be resolved.
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oldman
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Re: printing in reactos

Post by oldman »

There is some basic printing functionality in ReactOS. Colin Finck is the developer involved.

You will need to search the relevant parts of reactos.org, to find what the current state is.
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mauro451
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Joined: Mon Apr 17, 2017 8:05 pm

Re: printing in reactos

Post by mauro451 »

yes, I've previously read about Colin Finck progress in printing system, correct me if I'm wrong: it consists in a command line sending a text output to a generic printer driver, of course far away from a WYSIWYG output or else any graphic work, and not sure if every destination printer (or just mine) will succeed to print that output
It is good as starting point but cannot define exactly a good work in progress.
Repeat, I keep confident for the expected result to arrive.
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EmuandCo
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Re: printing in reactos

Post by EmuandCo »

ReactOS is still in alpha stage, meaning it is not feature-complete and is recommended only for evaluation and testing purposes.

If my post/reply offends or insults you, be sure that you know what sarcasm is...
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