la fábula de la impresora

A estas alturas de la batalla, ¿aún queda alguien que no sepa qué es un fichero Readme? En toda mi trayectoria profesional (y de la otra), creo que habré leído un millar de estos ficheros, donde se comentan las últimas novedades de los programas. Es el primer fichero que uno debe leer antes de tocar nada e, incluso Debian suele tener una versión propia, Readme.Debian, con todas las notas relativas a la adaptación del programa al paquete de la distribución.

Por eso me chocó encontrar (¡gracias @mrubiales por el aviso!) una pequeña fábula en uno de estos ficheros, más concretamente, en el del paquete cups-gnome-manager.

La fábula, que incluso comienza como tienen que comenzar estas cosas, con su «érase una vez…», habla de una solitaria impresora que vive en los bosques y que sólo quiere encontrar alguien que la configure. Y no sigo contando para no destripar el final… 🙂

Once upon a time there was a printer who lived in the woods. He was a
lonely printer, because nobody knew how to configure him. He hoped
and hoped for someone to play with.

One day, the wind passed by the printer’s cottage. «Whoosh,» said the
wind. The printer became excited. Maybe the wind would be his
friend!

«Will you be my friend?» the printer asked.

«Whoosh,» said the wind.

«What does that mean?» asked the printer.

«Whoosh,» said the wind, and with that it was gone.

The printer was confused. He spent the rest of the day thinking and
jamming paper (for that is what little printers do when they are
confused).

The next day a storm came. The rain came pouring down, darkening the
morning sky and destroying the printer’s garden. The little printer
was upset. «Why are you being so mean to me?» he asked.

«Pitter Patter, Pitter Patter,» said the rain.

«Will you be my friend?» the printer asked shyly.

«Pitter Patter, Pitter Patter,» said the rain, and then it left and
the sun came out.

The printer was sad. He spent the rest of the day inside, sobbing and
blinking lights cryptically (for that is what little printers do when
they are sad).

Then one day, a little girl stumbled into the printer’s clearing in
the woods. The printer looked at this curious sight. He didn’t know
what to think.

The little girl looked up at him. «Will you be my friend?» she asked.

«Yes,» said the printer.

«What is your name?» asked the little girl.

«HP 4100TN», replied the printer.

«My name is gnome-cups-manager» said the little girl.

The printer was happy. He spent the rest of the day playing games and
printing documents, for that is what little printers do when they are
happy.

Fichero README del paquete gnome-cups-manager.