API for printing?

[Rich Braun]

I have a background mainly on DEC systems (VMS, TOPS-10/20, etc.) and
have found one seemingly-glaring omission in both major flavors of Unix
(BSD and SysV):  a standardized queue-management application/programming
interface.  Virtually every mainframe system of the past had tens
of software-person-years tied up in this area.

I have a package which currently runs on IBM-PC's which has a Macintosh-
like printing interface, allowing one to select various parameters,
issue a print request and check on its status.  It is now being ported
to Unix.

What's the best way to accomplish this under Unix?  (I need to support
both flavors.)  Must I pipe commands to and from system utilities, which
tend to vary quite a bit between vendors and releases?

-rich