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File -> Print is not available (under Linux) [message #289522]

Sun, 07 August 2005 15:18

Jimisola Laursen

Messages: 134
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

Hi!

I am using Eclipse under Linux (Mandriva LE2005) and have so been since 2.x.
However, one thing irritates me and it is that I can't print from Eclipse as
the menu alternative File -> Print is shaded/faded/gray.

Is there something in particular that Eclipse needs to be able to print?
I have cups installed and printing works fine from other programs, such as
Firefox.

Jimisola

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Re: File -> Print is not available (under Linux) [message #289529 is a reply to message #289522]

Sun, 07 August 2005 21:09

Eclipse User

Originally posted by: myersj.nospam.gmail.com

Jimisola,

Please see this FAQ entry and the one below it:
http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/index.cgi/%7Echeckout%7E/plat form-swt-home/faq.html#printOnGTK

Hope this helps,
- Jeff

Jimisola Laursen wrote:
> Hi!
>
> I am using Eclipse under Linux (Mandriva LE2005) and have so been since 2.x.
> However, one thing irritates me and it is that I can't print from Eclipse as
> the menu alternative File -> Print is shaded/faded/gray.
>
> Is there something in particular that Eclipse needs to be able to print?
> I have cups installed and printing works fine from other programs, such as
> Firefox.
>
> Jimisola
>
>
>

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Re: File -> Print is not available (under Linux) [message #289578 is a reply to message #289529]

Mon, 08 August 2005 13:47

Grant Gayed

Messages: 2150
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

and also
http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/index.cgi/~checkout~/platform -swt-home/faq.html#printOnMotif

"Jeff Myers" <myersj@nospam.gmail.com> wrote in message
news:dd5ta0$nd1$2@news.eclipse.org...
> Jimisola,
>
> Please see this FAQ entry and the one below it:
>
http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/index.cgi/%7Echeckout%7E/plat form-swt-home/faq.html#printOnGTK
>
> Hope this helps,
> - Jeff
>
> Jimisola Laursen wrote:
> > Hi!
> >
> > I am using Eclipse under Linux (Mandriva LE2005) and have so been since
2.x.
> > However, one thing irritates me and it is that I can't print from
Eclipse as
> > the menu alternative File -> Print is shaded/faded/gray.
> >
> > Is there something in particular that Eclipse needs to be able to print?
> > I have cups installed and printing works fine from other programs, such
as
> > Firefox.
> >
> > Jimisola
> >
> >
> >

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Re: File -> Print is not available (under Linux) [message #289592 is a reply to message #289578]

Mon, 08 August 2005 15:10

David Goodenough

Messages: 157
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

Grant Gayed wrote:

> and also
>
http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/index.cgi/~checkout~/platform -swt-home/faq.html#printOnMotif
>
> "Jeff Myers" <myersj@nospam.gmail.com> wrote in message
> news:dd5ta0$nd1$2@news.eclipse.org...
>> Jimisola,
>>
>> Please see this FAQ entry and the one below it:
>>
>
http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/index.cgi/%7Echeckout%7E/plat form-swt-home/faq.html#printOnGTK
>>
>> Hope this helps,
>> - Jeff
>>
>> Jimisola Laursen wrote:
>> > Hi!
>> >
>> > I am using Eclipse under Linux (Mandriva LE2005) and have so been since
> 2.x.
>> > However, one thing irritates me and it is that I can't print from
> Eclipse as
>> > the menu alternative File -> Print is shaded/faded/gray.
>> >
>> > Is there something in particular that Eclipse needs to be able to
>> > print? I have cups installed and printing works fine from other
>> > programs, such
> as
>> > Firefox.
>> >
>> > Jimisola
>> >
>> >
>> >
It does seem absolutely extraordinary that we are now up to Eclipse 3.1 and
this is still a problem. It is particularly a problem as of the two under
Linux the only one I can get to work is the gtk version which means no
printing.

To ask what may be a silly question, if xprint can be used to print under
Motif why can not it not also be used to print under Gtk? Even if it did
not produce a 100% solution at least it would give us something. Looking
at the Debian package for xprint there are no dependancies on Motif, so
presumably it can be used without Motif in the Gtk environment.

The old excuse for not implementing this was that finding printers could
take a very long time, and that would slow the startup considerably. There
is a very simple solution to that (as I noted at the time) which is to get
the list of printers asynchronously, and only enable the greyed out Print
entry once the list of printers was complete.

David

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Re: File -> Print is not available (under Linux) [message #289609 is a reply to message #289592]

Mon, 08 August 2005 19:35

Eclipse User

Originally posted by: bbiggs.ca.ibm.com

David Goodenough wrote:
> It does seem absolutely extraordinary that we are now up to Eclipse 3.1 and
> this is still a problem. It is particularly a problem as of the two under
> Linux the only one I can get to work is the gtk version which means no
> printing.

Well, it means you can still print files using the external tools
thing, and map that to lpr or your favourite printing tool.

> To ask what may be a silly question, if xprint can be used to print under
> Motif why can not it not also be used to print under Gtk? Even if it did
> not produce a 100% solution at least it would give us something. Looking
> at the Debian package for xprint there are no dependancies on Motif, so
> presumably it can be used without Motif in the Gtk environment.

A major issue would be converting from pango fonts to X11 fonts,
which often isn't possible.

GTK+ does not support printing. It was on the plan for GTK+ 2.8 but
it ended up getting dropped. Now that cairo is going into GTK+ this
will likely become the basis of their printing support. I think
libgnomeprint is currently looking to be the best option, although they
have broken ABI in the past and some people do not consider this library
safe yet for ISVs. As well, it will likely be deprecated soon when GTK+
gets printing.

I think the two best options now are to try and leverage the cairo
ps/pdf backend, but then we'd still need a printer dialog (maybe do this
in concert with GTK+), or try and do the libgnomeprint work in some safe
way.

-Billy

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