Re: [hylafax-users] pdf2ps, faxmail, sendfax, sendmail

[Tom Rymes <trymes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Apr 15, 2005, at 12:15 PM, Lee Howard wrote:

> On Fri, 15 Apr 2005, Tom Rymes wrote:
>
> > I have seen this about 500 times on the list and it always elicits the
> > same response from me:
> >
> > 1.) I am not a programmer, so I can't just throw anything together.
>
> I don't mean to sound elitist, but HylaFAX does require a fair amount 
> of
> skill to get customized and working ideally.  For example, FaxDispatch
> customization requires at least *some* shell skills.  Then there's
> FaxNotify, DynamicConfig, and others.  These were all meant for
> customization.  Sure, HylaFAX works without them being touched, and 
> that's
> the idea.  But when someone wants to take HylaFAX beyond the defaults,
> then some skill is required to make that happen.
>
> So my point is that when a HylaFAX administrator wants to take HylaFAX
> beyond the defaults then they need to either 1) have some skills to 
> make
> that happen, or 2) get someone to do it for them.

I agree 100%, and I don't expect help for free. I was suggesting that, 
due to the large number of requests that seem to pop up here, this 
might be a good feature to consider implementing, thus making it part 
of the "default". The only reason I even suggest it at all is that the 
usual response to the questions ("Throw something together in perl, 
it's really easy.") suggests that it would not be very difficult.

[snip]

> > (especially if it is so easy, and so many
> > others have already invented this wheel, it seems.)
>
> It's a customization in each case.  It's not something, really, that 
> you
> expect to be useful for others.  If I gave you one of my faxmail
> replacements then you would be pretty much required to know shell
> scripting in order to get it working for you.  And so you'd ask me to 
> do
> it for you, and it would just go to reconfirm my statements above that 
> if
> you can't customize it yourself you'll need to get someone to do it for
> you.

OK, this makes sense, but I would think that some reasonable "standard" 
settings could be chosen, leaving the user to their own devices if they 
want to deviate from the default standard settings.

I'm not complaining here, until I start contributing code myself, I'm 
just happy to have such a great program to use! However, I think that 
the PDF attachment to fax would be a great feature for a number of 
current and potential users. Someone asked why do this instead of 
print-to fax, and there are various reasons, such as not wanting to 
configure a printer on all of my client PCs. Also, it makes it easier 
to use multiple platforms, not to mention I could then send a fax 
easily when I was out on the road by sending an e-mail. I could set it 
so that I can send an occasional fax from home without messing about 
with firewall settings, client programs on my home PC, etc.

Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, I swear,

Tom


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