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+---
+title: On the Architecture of a tool-set for interacting with character-oriented printers
+published: 2015-12-25
+tags: Thermoprint
+---
+
+# Motivation
+
+Some time ago I bought a cheap Chinese
+[thermoprinter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_printing) off eBay.
+As expected the printers firmware is really awkward to use (including binary
+control codes used to switch between char sets such as bold, italic, underlined,
+etc.).
+The obvious solution was to write a library to parse a more sensible
+representation and send it to be printed.
+
+Since there might, at some point, be other users wanting to print to my
+acquisition the architecture is intended to be present a somewhat usable
+interface to the uninitiated.
+
+# Implementation
+
+## Location
+
+Recently I created a new branch in
+[thermoprint](git://git.yggdrasil.li/thermoprint) called
+[rewrite](git://git.yggdrasil.li/thermoprint#rewrite).
+
+## Architecture Overview
+
+The new macroscopic architecture I´m currently aiming for is quite similar to
+the old one:
+
+ * A server intended to run on the machine connected to my cheap printer talking
+   directly to the printer on one end and serving a
+   [json api](https://hackage.haskell.org/package/servant) on the other.
+ * A (hopefully) tiny cli tool for debugging and personal use.
+ * A website (it will probably end up being based on
+   [yesod](https://hackage.haskell.org/package/yesod)) presenting a web interface
+   similar to the cli tool.
+
+## Features
+
+Features I intend to implement include:
+
+ * A parser for a bbcode-dialect which should be used in both the cli tool and the
+   website (it will probably end up using
+   [attoparsec](https://hackage.haskell.org/package/attoparsec)) -- bbcode as
+   presented on [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBCode) is a proper
+   superset of the feature-set of my cheap Chinese printer.
+ * Reasonable test coverage using
+   [QuickCheck](https://hackage.haskell.org/package/QuickCheck),
+   [HUnit](http://hackage.haskell.org/package/HUnit).
+   
+   Automatic testing with [cabal](https://www.haskell.org/cabal/) facilitated by
+   [hspec](https://hackage.haskell.org/package/hspec).
+ * Support and server-side storage for drafts.
+ * The Website should provide some richer formats than bbcode which will
+   probably find inclusion in the payload datastructure such as lists,
+   checklists, tables, etc.
+
+   The cli-tool should be able to use these too (the input will probably end up
+   being json-formatted).
+
+## Work so far
+
+I already have a prototype.
+It's quite bug-ridden and has recently developed serious problems actually
+printing after working satisfactorily for a few weeks.
+
+It also does not include a web-interface and I am quite unsatisfied with the
+overall code quality.
+
+The [685 lines of code](http://cloc.sourceforge.net/) can be found in the
+[repo](git://git.yggdrasil.li/thermoprint#master) as well.
+
+<!--  LocalWords:  Thermoprint thermoprint json api cli yesod bbcode attoparsec
+ -->
+<!--  LocalWords:  superset QuickCheck HUnit hspec datastructure repo
+ -->