🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <C1FusF.AyE@ra.nrl.navy.mil> atkinson@itd.nrl.navy.mil (Randall Atkinson) writes:
>unhappy about the draft ignoring both the existing practice of lp/lpr
>-- recall that MIT _removed_ Palladium from most of its systems
>because MIT felt it was less useful than just using existing practice
>such as lp/lpr and friends -- and the POSIX.2 precedent of

I don't claim to speak for MIT, or even to have a very good knowledge of
what's going on there, but here's what I sorta remember about the history
of Palladium.

   MIT Project Athena started out with 4.3BSD, including lpr and friends.
   They made some changes to the lpr suite, such as using Hesiod for the
   printcap information and having workstations spool directly to the
   print server rather than spooling locally and again on the print
   server.  This became the production print system for Athena, which is
   the production academic computing environment at MIT.

   Seeing the need for a better print system they wrote the spec for
   Palladium.  Then they implemented it.  This first implementation,
   like anything new, had lots of bugs.  At the point where they had planned
   to install it as the production system it wasn't considered stable
   enough for that purpose.  So they continued with lpr.

   Meanwhile Project Athena was ending, meaning a considerable reduction
   in dollars for development.  The money and enthusiasm were just not there
   to continue Palladium development.  The Athena system continues as
   the production computing facility, paid for out of MITs own budget.
   They get by with a few more hacks to lpr.  What was done on Palladium
   is out there; and anybody who wants to continue working on it may do so.

So I would argue that "less useful than just using existing..." doesn't
mean lpr is better than Palladium would have been; but rather than
Palladium at one point in time needed more work than MIT was willing or
able to put into it.
-- 
haynes@cats.ucsc.edu
haynes@cats.bitnet

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