I remember those times too. There were user-installable versions
of CUPS that some people used even after it was included in 10.2,
including (I think) a commercial "professional" version that supposedly
worked better than than the others. Also, even if you stuck with
the limited implementation in 10.2, if you had a printer that was the
least bit
exotic, you would have to search and manually install the appropriate
printer descriptor file for it. Good times (not!).
But I still think I am right on this one. The Apple Developers'
Center's
Leopard Reference Library has the page
<http://developer.apple.com/referencelibrary/Printing/idxCUPS-
date.html>,
that says:
CUPS
The Common Unix Printing System (CUP) is the de facto print spooler
for
Mac OS X. CUPS has a complete API that printer vendors can use to
write
printer drivers or provide other functionality for particular
printer models. It
provides complete printing services to most PostScript and raster
printers.
and <http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Printing/index.html> says:
Leopard Guides
Printing
The Mac OS X printing system is based on CUPS (Common UNIX Printing
System).
Mac OS X printing supports PostScript and raster printers, and
offers features such as job spooling via IPP (Internet Printing
Protocol), and PDF and Quartz imaging. The printing system allows
applications to present extensible user interfaces so that
developers can extend Apple's interface rather than write code to
override it.
In other words, CUPS is not the printer drivers, it is the printer
driver
interface, and it seems highly likely to me that you are using it.
I'd say
that the reason you no longer needed to understand CUPS in depth is
that Apple got it working so smoothly below the surface.
As for the Printer Setup Utility, its true that it isn't a standalone
application
in Leopard, but isn't it now part of the Print & Fax preference pane in
System Preferences, as the thing you get when you click + to add
a printer?
From: Tom Piwowar <[email protected]>
Apple licensed, then purchased CUPS for a reason. Printing was a
mess in 10.0 and 10.1, but with the addition of CUPS in 10.2, OS X
users became able to use every printer that Unix/Linux users could.
This brings back bad memories. If the anyone thinks M$ is having a bad
time with Vista, that's nothing compared to the first 3 versions of
OS X.
They were unusable. For a while it was looking to me that Apple
would not
survive.
Back then I was studying up on CUPS because it looked like the only
way
out of the printing mess, but then the need to understand CUPS
vanished.
The PostScript printers I use mostly install cleanly using the OS's
built-in PostScript support. The non-PostScript printers I have used
come
with their own drivers, that seem to work fine. The Printer Setup
Utility
that CUPS used was eliminated in Leopard (X.5) and the CUPS port is no
longer active. I could be wrong, but I don't think I'm using CUPS. I
think CUPS remains as an option in case you have a printer that is not
otherwise supported.
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