This is an enhancement request.

I picked up the following mail:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 23 Feb 2006 08:33:46 -0500
To: cups@easysw.com
Subject: Re: [cups.general] magicolor 2450, bad ppd file

> Installation of km2450np.ppd file for a magicolor 2450
> under SuSE10.0 was not successfull.
> The message: km2450np.ppd: Fail
>      BAD DefaultKMSimGrayTreatment ComppsiteBlack
>      REF: Page 40, section 4.5.
>      Osolate PPD version 4.0 !
>      REF: Page 42, secton 5.2
>      ShortNickName required by PPD 4.3 spec.
>      REF: Pages 64-65, section 5.3
> Has anyone an idea what is REF: ?
> What kind of Reference ?
> Of Adobe's Postscript Reference ?

All references are to the Adobe PostScript Printer Description File
Format Specification, version 4.3.
"man cupstestppd" for the complete scoop...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I picked up seveal similar customer questions too.

In general customers do not understand what is going on
when YaST refuses to add a PPD to its database because
cupstestppd fails.

When I try to add a broken PPD /tmp/file.ppd
I get the following message in YaST:

The message header is:
"Error: No Suitable PPD File Downloaded"
which is wrong for a local PPD file like /tmp/file.ppd

The message body is like
---------------------------------------------------------
Checking file "./file.ppd"
/tmp/file.ppd: FAIL
      **FAIL**  BAD DefaultPageSize FooBar
                REF: Page 40, section 4.5.

0 files passed
---------------------------------------------------------

A normal user cannot understand what is going on here.
He will understand that something went wrong but he cannot
understand what the actual reason is.

On the one hand I do want to show real hard facts to the user,
in particular the real eror messages must be shown to the user
because otherwise he cannot ask for help outside of Suse, see
for example the mail above: without the real error message
nobody on the cups@easysw.com would have known what went wrong. 

On the other hand, before the actual error message there must
be a meaningful message whcih tells a normal user what is
going on.

Proposal for a better user information when cupstestppd fails:

Header:
Error: PPD File Rejected

Body:
------------------------------------------------------------------
A PPD file was rejected because it is not in compliance
to the Adobe PostScript Printer Description File Format
Specification (version 4.3).

You should ask where you got this PPD file from
for an error-free PPD file.

The PPF file test using "cupstestppd" results:

Checking file "./file.ppd"
/tmp/file.ppd: FAIL
      **FAIL**  BAD DefaultPageSize FooBar
                REF: Page 40, section 4.5.

0 files passed
------------------------------------------------------------------