Comments

Interesting stuff. Only thing that wasn't highlighted was when you actually change the database tables and how that is automatically handled.
I would expect a seperate XML file with these mappings which you could update if things would have been changed to a point that automatic handling fails...
Is there also another view for checking the mappings?

Peter

edit: Sorry, first I really had to make sure I was the second poster, then I edited it to make my point, and after that I noticed your comment as well, honestly. BTW, you edited as well

Sorry I don't have anything to say about the content yet. Going to watch it later after we went out to the city (Queensday in Holland).

Until then: I posted after stupid

You're probably just jealous that he's more famous and has accomplished a lot and people are prepared to pay him for that.

But indeed, the sounds must be really good so they are not turned off. As long as they do not influence startup and logoff time and can be be set on a loudness level that is independent of whatever is the loudness level you used the last time Like turning on the pc at midnight while the girlfriend is sleeping, and not knowing she listened to loud music in the afternoon

My 2cts

Skip to the end, she colored it in.

Beer28 wrote:

what happens if you like some other operating system better in the future?(like oh say.... well, I better not)
I see alot of painful laser treatments in your future.

Perhaps that's why you don't have a tattoo?

Although the spool file reduction would more benefit vector graphics applications I've also got curious about the Windows Media image compression file format from reading the XPS spec. I wonder what the compression/quality factors are and if it will also become pitched as a gif/jpg replacement just like png.

I think you confuse two things:
One thing is the ability to print a document. This is something that PDF also has, not allowing printing. With XPS you can allow only certain people to print.

Second is the ability to send an encrypted job to the printer. The printer should then show a dialog prompting the user to authenticate. This is something that is currently implemented by many printer manufacturers, and is done in the printer driver.

My guess is that the first scenario is handled by the XPS viewer.
The second scenario should be handled by the printer, as with XPS encryption/authentication isn't a driver feature anymore.

My 2 cts
Good luck with your application. If I were you I would contact several printer manufacturers and ask if they could support your use case.

The printer would need a new interpreter for XPS.
However, the print path in Vista should also have optimized conversions to Postscript/PCL, probably in the GDI to EMF conversion area, so you should get better print-out. I wonder however if this will be a Vista-only feature for older drivers... (they are backporting the new print-path to XP/2003, but also these optimalisations?)

Vista would ship XPS drivers out of the box for printers that are going to be released/updated around the time of Vista release, but that's up to the printer manufacturer. In the corporate market customers generally update the printer drivers with the latest ones from the manufacturer. In the consumer market it helps to have a printer working out-of-the-box. Depending on the consumer's technical skills they could still decide to update to the ones from the manufacturer CD/website/windows update.

There are restrictions on the size of the drivers you may inbox in Windows, and you need to share source code, so that Microsoft can also compile your driver against the latest driver development kit at any time and do regression tests.

Peter

Metro was the codename of XPS print path.

As a developer you would need to support 'Avalon' XAML.
As a printer driver developer you would either 'enhance' your existing printer driver with the XML based DeviceCapabilities and PrintTicket API's, or build a XAML printer driver from the ground up.