[sane-devel] SANE OS X 10.3 Install Problems

[Phil Barrett]

Randolph Fritz wrote:
> I think, probably, a better approach would be to have sanei_osx_SAM.c.
> But, the API is very new, and Apple plans on offering their own
> standard scanner driver ("In later versions of Mac OS X, however, the
> mass storage stack will include support for other SCSI peripheral
> devices, such as scanners."), so it may be best to wait on that.

On a related note, OS X 10.3 introduced changes to the Image Capture
Architecture, making it TWAIN-like in its parameters, and included the new
"EPSON Scanner" driver. It's a step forward for users, but the fact that
only EPSON have shipped [OS X native] TWAIN or ICA scanner drivers means
there remains a big need for SANE on OS X.

The updated SDK was released on Friday:
http://developer.apple.com/sdk/index.html#ImageCapture

It should be pretty easy to bridge ICA and SANE, in either direction.

A SANE driver bridged to ICA underneath (to allow SANE apps to use ICA
drivers) would be of little use for scanning right now due to the EPSON-only
issue, but it might make more sense for digital cameras, for which there is
wide ICA support.

But an ICA driver bridged to SANE underneath would widen usability on OS X
considerably, by giving "transparent" (apart from discovery and
configuration) access to SANE-supported scanners through the Image Capture
application.

Phil