sane config files [was [sane-devel] Infrared channel]]

[Julien BLACHE]

Gerhard Jaeger <gerhard@gjaeger.de> wrote:

> In the end, we need an easy to use AND handle way to unify the scanner
> descriptions and to give the distri guys the possibility to create
> tools for configuration:

Ok, so, as a "distri guy", I disagree with this.

I agree with Oliver, in that there's no need for config files tweaking
by the user, and I back that one with facts: SANE in Debian works
pretty much out of the package for most of the scanners newcomers care
about, that is, USB scanners. The same is true for most SCSI scanners,
while parport scanners are, well, parport scanners :P

Let's face it, for some backends, it's not possible to get rid of the
config file, but for most this could and should be done.

Config tools are a pain, let's avoid that as much as we can. The
future of scanners and other peripherals is clearly USB and FireWire,
and whatever will be next will have the same goals: plug&play, no
configuration, device/capability advertisement and so on.

Users do not want config tools. They want to use their scanner, and
that's it. Most users do not need a thousand options to tweak, they
just want something that works.

And don't even think about documentation, they won't read it.

Now, if only our beloved vendors could stop their firmware
crazyness... *THAT* is much more painful for our users than editing
dll.conf.

JB.

-- 
Julien BLACHE                                   <http://www.jblache.org> 
<jb@jblache.org>                                  GPG KeyID 0xF5D65169