[sane-devel] FW: SANE back-end development

[abel deuring]

David Chamberlin wrote:
> Does anyone know if it  is  possible to develop a binary distribution of a
> sane back-end that uses a proprietary protocols and  to distribute this
> back-end with sane-backends? 
> Can manufacturers that make only binary back-ends  advertise  "Supported by
> Sane" or "Runs on Linux"?

IANAL, but I would object to the term "supported by Sane". The Sane
developers can't provide any support for such a binary-only backend, so
there's not support by Sane. Considering my bad experience with a
binary-only driver for the wireless network chip RTL8180 under Linux, I
think the term "may work with Sane" would be appropriate. Or - hoping
that Kyocera will do a better job than Realtek supporting Linux or other
Unices - something like "Sane compatibility provided by Kyocera". In
other words: If users of such a binary-only backend encounter problems,
I'd like to have the responsibilties clearly stated. I'm sure that these
users will ask this mailing list, but I'd like to be able to point them
to the authors of the binary-only stuff.

Abel