This has probably been asked before, but I'm a thicko, so there.

As I'm not certain to what extent the Bluetooth stack on the 770 is functional, this might even be a stupid question, but, all issues about storage space and RAM aside, is it possible to get Bluetooth printing working on the 770? CUPS might be too much, but a well-thought out lpr printing system should be possible IMHO. No?

I was going for the record for unanswered post with most read hits. So, did I get it?

I would also be interested in printing from my 770. As far as I could tell, Nokia did not include any printing capabilities. Both lp and CUPS printing are not included. I am not sure what it would take to add printing. My guess is lp support could be added. Then again I could be totally wrong.

IIRC, lpe only "speaks" straight text or PostScript, so for most printers translation libraries (GhostScript?) would be needed.

But how about printing directly to PostScript printers (as I have one of those, it's easy to see my bias here)? Or network printing through a Linux box that takes care of the PostScript-to-printer stuff? I did the latter with my Newton MessagePad and while I readily admit that, in the case of the 770 (Newtons have this really really weird file structure and talk to virtually nothing in the electronic world), it might be easier to simply transfer the file and print it directly from the desktop, there is always the coolness factor to take into account.

I have a few network connected Postscript printers so ghostscript should not be required in my situation. I was playing with the port of Jpilot and was able to generate postscript files from this application. I chose as the print command (from some contacts that I imported from J-pilot on my desktop):

cat > /media/mmc1/record.ps

this generated a postscript file that could be dragged to the PC and printed. I am not sure if the 770 has a ftp client port, but you should be able to ftp into a postcript printer and "put" the postscript file for printing. Not ideal, but it should work. This is the only application that I found that had printing support so that is also a big limitation.

There are two issues here:

1. Getting some sort of printing infrastructure working (CUPS, old fashioned lpr, etc)
2. Having apps that are willing and able to print.

The former is not all that hard - the 770 is just a linux box. The latter, however, is more of an issue. The mail and web app simply don't print. No matter what you add to the 770, they don't print.

I'm going to guess that something like the standard UNIX lpr command would literally just work on the command line after a quick recompile. If your goal is to print simple text documents, you could compile enscript and then everything would be good.

I see that e.g. Abiword has printing menu entries, but they are presently greyed out. Would they become active if a printing system were to be put in place?

FWIW, the GPE PIM suite seems to have printing available. I have not had a chance to try it. My install of Abiword does not seem to have printing (greyed out or otherwise) or at least I could not find it. Printing from Abiword or Evince would be ideal. As bhima stated, lpr print support should not be too difficult a port (I think), but the applications would have to support printing. I would guess text files from the command line would also be possible with lpr support.

Is it even remotely possible that printing might get on the Mistral roadmap?

I agree that it isn't a core task of the 770, but as long as normal networking isn't possible, it would, at least here, be appreciated.

I can't believe printing doesn't come standard! That aside, if it's too difficult to support printing, then how about all note/word style apps supporting a 'Save As HTML' feature for export to our email addy, so we can log on to a standard computer and at least print what we've written...say using Abiword, while on the bus or train....?

As long as these programs can output the text to a printable format, they would still be useable, just not convenient.

Heck, what about someone figuring out a way to make a FAX driver that sends your print out via your 770's internet connection (phone or Wi-Fi) to a fax # you specify. Then, anywhere you go, any fax nearby would recieve your print wirelessly over the internet and down to the fax's line for the SCORE!!!

Norton's fax software did something like this.... a printer driver-to-fax engine, only it wasn't wireless or mobile like this would be .... it was less awesome. If someone takes my idea and actually writes it into action, would you at least come back and let me know that I made a difference? I need that right now.

Thanks for your time.