[sane-devel] Astra 2100U on Mac

[Henning Meier-Geinitz]

Hi,

On Mon, May 17, 2004 at 01:02:50PM -0400, David N. Paules wrote:
> If OS X can 'see' the scanner and know that it is a UMAX Astra (even
> without the Classic environment running), why can't the scanner be
> utilized via Panther's Image Capture, TWAIN applications, or the SANE
> backends?

Most USB scanners tell their names when you ask them. So you don't
even need any special kind of software to sho that a Foo Barscanner is
attached.

Writing a scanner driver is much more complicated than just detecting
the scanner.

> I've written UMAX and SilverFast regarding support of the Astra
> 2100U. SilverFast says it is up to UMAX...even they cannot develop
> support for the scanner because they don't have the code.

Even without source code it's possible to write drivers od any scanner
that is already supported e.g. on Windows. It just takes a lot of
time. Most people are not interested to put so much effort in such a
project.

> I have the original Mac Classic driver (as a binary, not an
> executable), but I am not a C programmer. Who (developer) could I
> cooperate with to figure this one out? I also have the binary
> versions of the Windows driver (they came with the Mac drivers on the
> same CD), but no access to a Windows box.

Usually the binaries don't help much. It's easier to listen to the USB
packets sent to the scanner when a scan is done.

> I'd be willing to perform tests if someone could tell me what to do.
> I live in Delaware, so if there is a developer near Philly or S. New
> Jersey, we could work together on it. I think it'd be fun and I hate
> using the scanner in its current configuration.

You are the developer. Sorry, but it's up to the users of unsupported
scanners to develop a backend. While we (the developers of already
existing backends) try to help and answer wuestions, the hard work
must be done by someone who owns that scanner and really really wants
to write a driver :-)

See our "Contributing" web page for some more docs.

Bye,
  Henning