Proposal: Create a Unified Legacy-Printer-App

Background

Currently, legacy printer support is split across multiple printer applications (e.g., ghostscript-printer-app, ps-printer-app, etc.) that handle different printing stacks. While this separation might make sense from a development perspective, it could create unnecessary complexity for end users who have to figure out which printing backend their legacy device uses (an implementation detail) as opposed to picking a make and a model from the printer setup menu (current CUPS 2.x experience).

Proposed Solution

Create a unified legacy-printer-app that consolidates existing printer applications into a single solution. Key features:

• Single entry point for bridging legacy printer support, the "xwayland" or "pipewire-pulse" analog for printing.
• Internal handling of different printing stacks, where users select legacy printers by brand and model.

Benefits

1. For users: Reduce confusion during CUPS 3.x transition, simplified printer setup process.

2. For development: Consolidated codebase, reducing duplication/maintenance overhead.

3. For packaging: Less packages to track/release/maintain.

While the unified Snap/Docker container may be slightly larger in size, most dependencies already overlap between current apps, resulting in a minimal size increase if any.

Beginne damit, die bestehenden Anwendungen ghostscript-printer-app, ps-printer-app und andere ältere Druckeranwendungen zu prüfen, um die von ihnen unterstützten Druck-Stacks zu erfassen. Lege den Umfang eines einheitlichen Einstiegspunkts fest, einschließlich der Auswahl von Marke und Modell sowie der internen Handhabung der Stacks. Als abgeschlossen gilt die Aufgabe, wenn der vorgeschlagene Ansatz für legacy-printer-app und seine Auswirkungen auf die Paketierung ausreichend für die Implementierung spezifiziert sind.