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bbfa235
(Get the code!)
It is certainly good to know that some attention is planned to be given to this issue at some point. However, I cannot help but feel the the severity of this bug is not appreciated by the developers.
Everyone here admits that the patches available are horrible hacks and do not address the underlying issues. But as I understand it, they would dramatically improve the experience for many users. What is the reason *not* to use the patch as a temporary fix until you have time to address the issue more thoroughly? I realise that there is a lot to be said for doing a job right but there is also a great deal to be said for solving a problem sooner rather than later.
I just don't understand the reasons not to use the patch. It is there. Somebody has written it. People have tested it. Why *not* use it? Maybe it is a sticking plaster but if it can cover up some of the mess which is the current printing dialog, why not use it? I could understand it if the patch had to be developed from scratch but that's not the case. Is it a reluctance to use a less elegant, uglier patch (as everyone admits this one is)? But the current dialog is, frankly, hideous. So something hideous is better than something ugly if the former can be blamed on somebody else while you would feel responsible for the latter? Is that it? If so, I recommend a more utilitarian perspective...
I'm also intrigued that the plans appear to include sitting down to design a new printing interface when openprinting appears to be a good way along the path to developing an excellent one. As far as I can tell - and I am certainly no expert - a great deal of effort is going into ensuring that that design actually works for users rather than merely seeming to the developers as though it should. I am not suggesting that KDE does not have people who know what they are doing in GUI design - clearly this would be grossly unfair. But can you really hope to put the same level of effort into designing one element of the overall system? And, even if you can, why should you duplicate that effort rather than putting those efforts into other areas?