[sane-devel] SANE2 plans: RFC

[Major A]

> Please don`t mix versions in the backend.
> There is no reel advantage to create a backend that supports version1 and 
> version2.
> But it makes the backends very complex, large and has a high risk for bugs.

I totally agree. Universal frontends are a must (or at least a "dll1"
meta-backend for dynamically linking SANE1 backends to SANE2), but
backends should be version-specific. Let's not try to do things the
Microsoft way. BTW, SANE2 explicitly states that only one version
should be supported by any one backend, let's keep it that way.

I also agree that splitting the source trees would be the best way to
go. How about a sane-backends2 or so? We don't even have to distribute
SANE1 backends with the (future) standard distribution for a start,
they could remain part of the existing sane-backends and be accessed
by dll1 or so. (I don't think static building will be a problem here,
those who don't use dynamic loading are either running on a stone-age
system or using embedded hardware, and neither of these species are
going to update SANE very often.)

Having said that, I have a few comments about the SANE2 standard, but
more about that later this week (I hope I have some time then).

  Andras

===========================================================================
Major Andras
    e-mail: andras at users.sourceforge.net
    www:    http://andras.webhop.org/
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