[sane-devel] Proposal for device lists

[Henning Meier-Geinitz]

Hi,

Before we release the next SANE version we should think about how to
present the different types of device/backend lists on the HTML pages.

One way to do this is described here:

On the Main page, only one link:

Introduction
Tutorial
Supported Scanners
Supported Platforms
Applications (frontends)
[...]

On the supported devices page:

Devices supported by SANE

(fat/big whatever)
* Stable version sorted by manufacturer
* Stable version sorted by backend

(smaller)
* CVS version sorted by manufacturer
* CVS version sorted by backend

* External drivers sorted by manufacturer
* External divers sorted by backend

* Older SANE versions (1.0.8, 1.0.7, 1.0.6, ...)

My intention is to not clutter the main page with lots of links to
lists and provide an easy way to the most important list (stable
manufacturers) nevertheless.

Anyone has better ideas?


By the way: What about the link to Jonathan Buzzard's parallel port
and USB scanners pages? The lists are very useful but haven't been
updated for about one year and I get quite a lot of comments from
users who are surprised that their scanner is supported although it's
mentioned otherwise on these pages. I have also seen some comments on
Usenet about the SANE project recommending Epson scanners. Some guys
don't seem to realize that these are not "official" SANE pages even if
it's mentioned that it isn't.

So what do we do: Keep the links and add a sentence that the user
should check the up-to-dateness of the pages or remove the links?


Yet another related topic: It would be great to have some sort of
database generated from the .desc files. So a user could use the WWW
to search for his scanner. E.g with search boxes for Manufacturer,
bus-type and model name. The output would be all we now about the
model including backedn and manufacturer links and by which version
it's supported. Eg, first check stable, then cvs, then external
drivers. 

Can anyone do this?

Bye,
  Henning