Model names (was: [sane-devel] Proposed timetable for the release of sane-backends-1.0.16)

[Johannes Meixner]

Hello,

On Jul 5 08:50 Gerhard Jaeger wrote (shortened):
> On Tuesday 05 July 2005 02:10, Olaf Meeuwissen wrote:
> > I would much appreciate it if someone with commit privileges would be
> > so kind as to update doc/descriptions-external/epkowa.desc.
> 
> done - with a small correction, you might want to cross-check that.

I noticed that many model names are a bit different in epson.desc
and epkowa.desc.

I don't have the detailled knowledge which model names are exactly
the right ones but I assume that many of those models are on fact
the same.

As scanner config tools build the model lists from the *.desc files
it leads to some user confusion which exact model he should select.
The user may think that one model is only supported by one backend
because of sightly different model names.
A scanner config tool cannot find the matching backends if the
model name in *.desc is sightly different than the autodetected
model name and therefore the tool will not offer all backends which
work in fact for the scanner to the user.


Example:

The labels on my scanners (i.e. what is on the hardware) are
"EPSON PERFECTION 1240U" and "EPSON PERFECTION 2480 PHOTO".

In epson.desc there is "Epson Perfection 1240".
In snapscan.desc there is "Epson Perfection 2480".
In epkowa.desk there is "EPSON Perfection 1240U"
and "EPSON Perfection 2480 PHOTO".

sane-find-scanner finds
the "EPSON PERFECTION 1240U" as
"... vendor=0x04b8 [EPSON], product=0x010b [Perfection1240] ..."
and the "EPSON PERFECTION 2480 PHOTO" as
"... vendor=0x04b8 [EPSON], product=0x0121 [EPSON Scanner] ..."

"lsusb -v" lists
the "EPSON PERFECTION 1240U" as
  idVendor           0x04b8 Seiko Epson Corp.
  idProduct          0x010b Perfection 1240
  iManufacturer           1 EPSON
  iProduct                2 Perfection1240
and the "EPSON PERFECTION 2480 PHOTO" as
  idVendor           0x04b8 Seiko Epson Corp.
  idProduct          0x0121 
  iManufacturer           1 EPSON
  iProduct                2 EPSON Scanner


Summary:
Most model strings are slightly different depending where the
information is stored.

When case is ignored and meaningless characters
(e.g. all except "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+")
are ignored, more model strings become equivalent
but trailing meaningful characters (like "U" or "PHOTO")
cannot be ignored by a scanner setup tool and this leads
to the above problems for the users.

I would apprecialte it if at least the manufacturer and model
strings in epson.desc and epkowa.desc would be the same and
if possible exactly those which are autodetected.


By the way:
Does anybody know why model name autodetection fails
for the "EPSON PERFECTION 2480 PHOTO"?
Is the model name stored inside the scanner and this model
reports only "EPSON Scanner" on the USB bus or has the USB system
a map "model ID -> model name" where an entry for this model
is missing?


Kind Regards
Johannes Meixner
-- 
SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5      Mail: jsmeix@suse.de
90409 Nuernberg, Germany                    WWW: http://www.suse.de/